Introduction to Electronic Mail

by Virginia Shea

Electronic mail is known for its informality. This is partly because of the hacker culture whence email springs and partly because email is so easy to send. In some ways email has more in common with phone discussion than with paper memos, which are traditionally more formal in tone.

Because email communications are written, they can be much more detailed than a phone conversation. And they're delivered almost instantaneously, rather than overnight. So colleagues or friends can have a long "conversation" -- with a written record of what they said -- over the course of a day.

Anatomy of an email message

When you receive an Internet email message, it usually contains many lines of incomprehensible gibberish before the beginning of the actual text. (Endnote #11) This chunk of gibberish is known as the "header" of the message. Most of it is a record of the path the message took from the sender's computer to yours. It's useful only when an email message gets lost or misdelivered; normally, you can safely ignore it. Headers also often contain useful stuff like a time and date stamp and an indication of whether files are attached to the message.

The three most important pieces of information in the header are the email addresses of the sender and the recipient, and a subject line that tells what the message is about. All email messages -- whether or not they travel over the Internet -- contain these three pieces of information.

When you send an email message, your return address usually appears automatically. You just need to fill in the "To" line (with the recipient's email address) and the "Subject" line (with a clear and concise description of the subject of your message).

The Internet addressing scheme

Internet addresses always take the form "name@organization.domain". For example, my Internet address is ms.netiquette@albion.com

The "ms.netiquette" part is my "handle" -- my Internet nickname. "Albion," the organization name, refers to Albion Books, my publisher; and "com," the domain designation, means that "Albion" is a commercial business. There are six major Internet domain designations:

• com commercial businesses
• edu educational institutions
• org nonprofit organizations
• net networks
• mil the military
• gov government entities

President Bill Clinton's Internet address is president@whitehouse.gov. Vice President Al Gore's is vice.president@whitehouse.gov. They both welcome email suggestions. Go ahead -- give it a try!

Other addressing schemes

Each commercial service and mail system has its own addressing scheme. For example, on CompuServe, people don't have "handles."

Their email addresses are all numbers. Long numbers. Most up-to-date systems allow users to choose their own handles, which makes life a lot easier for everyone who lacks a photographic memory.

Most email systems have Internet gateways. That means you can send mail via the Internet to people who use different email systems or services. Usually, the address within the service is translated to an Internet address. For example, if your CompuServe address was 12345,6789, your friends on CompuServe would just send their mail to 12345,6789. But, because I'm not on CompuServe, I'd have to use the address 12345.6789@compuserve.com.

Email address changes

People's email addresses tend to change fairly frequently. This can happen because of changes in a person's job, in a company's mail system, or in an individual's online service. For example, when Bill Clinton leaves the presidency, you probably won't be able to reach him at president@whitehouse.gov any more.

There isn't much you can do about this except be aware of it. If you have an electronic address book where you store frequently used email addresses, occasionally check the headers of email you receive to make sure all your information is up-to-date.

Q. My email system displays a great big window on my screen/beeps loudly/displays a little flashing icon every time I get mail. Does Netiquette require me to read every message the moment I receive it?

Certainly not. One of the great things about email is that you don't have to interrupt what you're doing to deal with it the way you do for a telephone call. As long as you're checking your mail regularly (daily for home users, two to four times a day for business users), you're practicing good Netiquette.

Most of those notifiers can be turned off if they annoy you. If you don't know how to do it, check with your email system administrator.

Of course, some of us have attention spans so short that we welcome the interruption of email. And an immediate response is very impressive to many people -- they think it means you're right on top of your work. If you prefer to read every message as soon as you notice it, go for it. You'll find that more and more of your work gets done via the mail system rather than the phone.

Those wacky email features

Email is full of useful features that, in many cases, didn't exist before. As with paper memos, you can carbon copy (cc) or blind carbon copy (bcc) your notes to anyone on your mail network. You can attach return receipts to your notes so that you'll know when your email has been opened. You can schedule tickler messages months ahead of time. You can flag your messages as "urgent"; in many cases, these notes will appear immediately on the reader's screen. And, on some systems, you can set up a "bozo filter" or "kill file" that automatically screens out email from people whose messages you deem unworthy of reading. All these features vary from system to system.

Carbon copy (cc) and blind carbon copy (bcc)

Use these features anywhere you'd use them when sending a paper memo -- for example, when your boss has delegated a project to you and you want to keep her up-to-date on it, or when you request information from a higher-up and want to be sure his secretary also knows about your request. A few carbon copy don'ts:

• Don't cc Steve Jobs on your analysis of the war in Bosnia.
• Don't cc Michael Spindler on your hatchet job about Steve Jobs and John Sculley.
• Don't cc your boss on your lunch date with your friend in Accounts Payable.

In other words, don't waste other people's time.

Return receipts

A receipt is a message the email system sends to the writer of a note after the note has been opened. In The Computer Curmudgeon, Guy Kawasaki claims that "receipts are insulting. You are saying to the recipient: 'You're a lazy schlub who never reads his email.'"

Guy has a point, but he goes a little too far. First of all, there are lazy schlubs who never read their email. (See "Email overload imagined" on page 97 .) Second, using a receipt is a really good idea when you're not sure whether the email system is working. Where I used to work, the gateway between the Mac mail system and the PC mail system went down all the time. Eventually, I started using a return receipt any time I sent important mail to a PC user because that was the only way I'd know whether the mail had gone through.

Receipts are also useful when you're dealing with high-level executives who are generally good about checking their email but have crazy travel and meeting schedules. If the note isn't read in a reasonable amount of time, you can follow up with a phone call and check whether it was received.

Some systems tell the recipient that you're getting a return receipt and some don't. The ones that notify the mail recipient are practicing better Netiquette.

Prescheduled "ticklers": Friendly reminder or Orwellian control mechanism?

Some systems allow you to write a note months ahead of time and schedule it to be sent later. You could use this feature, for example, to remind yourself to buy your mom a birthday present. Your manager could use it to remind you and your colleagues that an important deadline is approaching. But you wouldn't necessarily know whether he'd written it yesterday or six months ago. On the other hand, you could tell the boss you're working at home, schedule a "progress report" message to be sent off at 3:00 p.m., and take off for the beach.

Netiquette's call on prescheduled ticklers is that the technology is value-neutral; it all depends on how it's used. No manager should use electronic communication to replace human interaction. That's bad Netiquette and bad management. It's both dishonest and rude to claim that a message that was actually written months ago was written today. And using technology to pretend to be somewhere when you're not is inappropriate, no matter who does it.

On the other hand, any technique that helps projects stay on schedule deserves consideration in the business world. In any case, smart employees will probably figure out pretty quickly which messages were sent live and which were written months ago.

The "urgent" flag

Avoid using the "urgent" flag unless your message is both important and time-critical. It's a real irritation to read a note with an urgent flag and discover that it's (a) completely routine or (b) something that can wait a day or more. Some systems will display a message flagged as "urgent" on the recipient's computer screen immediately, but be aware that this feature can usually be defeated.

"Bozo filters" and intelligent filters

In many discussion groups, you can set up a "bozo filter" or "kill file," which automatically screens out notes from people whose messages you deem unworthy of reading. Some companies are now implementing this feature on their corporate email systems.

Bozo filters pose no problem on recreational discussion groups. But you'd want to be very careful using one on your work email system. Say Joe Schmoe down the hall has a bad habit of sending the Blonde Joke of the Day to everyone on the hallway. Since you're a blonde, you don't appreciate this, and you decide to filter all of Joe's mail. But one day, the department director asks Joe to delegate an important project to you. What are you going to say six weeks later when the director wanders into your office to check on the project -- "Uh, I never read Joe's email because he's a jerk"? Bad idea.

A better kind of filter allows you to prioritize your mail rather than filtering it completely. For example, mail from your boss or colleagues working on an important project might be top priority; mail from mailing lists might be third or fourth priority.

When to send files (and when not to)

Many email systems allow you to attach files to your email notes. This is a handy feature for the sender, but under some circumstances, a pain in the neck for the receiver, especially if he doesn't have the right tools to access the file. Even under the best circumstances, reading an email note, then saving and opening a file takes significantly longer than just reading an email note. So you should never send a file when a simple note would do.

An example: Occasionally, I used to receive email notes saying only "see attachment." The attachment would invariably turn out to be the word processing file for a paper memo announcing a meeting. It would have been a lot easier for me -- and everyone else who received the file -- if the relevant information had simply been copied into the email note itself. And copying that information into the note would hardly have taken the sender any longer than sending the file.

On the other hand, the ability to transmit files is a godsend when your file contains important formatting (boldface, italics, et cetera) or other non-text information (a spreadsheet, for example). That's because many email systems allow only ASCII text in their notes, but attached files can contain any kind of information. You can also send a file that's too long to paste into an email note.

All these situations are most likely to arise when both you and your correspondent are working with the files in question. For example, I sent Netiquette to my publisher in the form of files rather than email notes because (1) it contained important formatting information and (2) it was long.

When you send a file, it's important to make sure that your correspondent has the application software necessary to open the file. If you're "uuencoding" your file (an Internet standard), make sure your recipient can "uudecode" it. And check whether her version of the software is older than yours. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to open up, say, a PageMaker file, and discovering that your correspondent has already upgraded to the brand-new version while you're still using the old one.

Finally, it's a good idea to include your email address within any file you send. It's a courtesy -- just like putting your return address at the top of your letter, as well as on the outside of the envelope, which might get thrown out.

Email flames

Like many other cyberspace travelers, email writers sometimes forget the Golden Rule of Netiquette -- Remember the human -- and write things they would never say out loud.

Here's a sample situation: A colleague has just used email to respond to some written work you did. The note doesn't just disagree with the point of view you took up; it attacks you in rather personal terms. You're upset. How do you respond?

It takes a little courage, but it's not difficult. First, wait a few hours -- even a day or two -- to cool down. Then reply to your colleague's note. Say that, while you respect his right to disagree with you, you want him to know that his personal comments hurt your feelings. If you choose, you may also use this note to reply to the substance of his criticisms, but it's probably better to wait. This approach usually brings the discourse back where it belongs -- to the substance of the issues, rather than the morals and personal habits of the people in the discussion. It works because it reminds your colleague that you're a human being who deserves to be treated with respect -- even over the network.

Of course, if your colleague is the kind of subhuman scum who will never get that message, just flame back. ;-) (Endnote #12)

Email as a substitute for live interaction

People will occasionally say things like "Electronic communication is no substitute for human interaction." Hogwash. Of course it is. Humans have been developing substitutes for live interaction since the invention of smoke signals.

The valid point in that statement is that electronic communication can't -- and shouldn't -- completely replace live human interaction. A case in point: The Wall Street Journal (Endnote #13) reports on a group of managers who agreed to start using email less. Why? They found that because they solved most of their easy problems via email, they only met when they had to deal with something really nasty, which led to very unpleasant meetings. They agreed to meet more regularly (although still less frequently than they did before the advent of email) so as to stay on better terms with each other.

Email can be a great tool for dealing with people you can't stand in person. I once had to work with an incredibly nervous man whose tension was contagious. Rather than having him call me up at all hours of the day, we agreed to communicate by email. I sent him a project update every day or so, and if I left any of his questions unanswered, he would ask them by return email. I would try to reply by the end of the next day. I also tried to send him my reports right before I went home in the evening, so that if he did decide to follow up with a phone call, I'd be gone. It worked pretty well.

We still had to meet in person once in a while, though. You can't have everything.

Email Never-Neverland: home of the lost messages

Somewhere in cyberspace, there's a limbo of lost email messages. Like the souls of unbaptized babies, these notes wait, unread, for the end of time.

The Post Office has always had its dead letter office. Mail delivery in cyberspace is no more foolproof. The advantage of electronic delivery is that lost information isn't irretrievable; you usually have a copy of anything you sent to someone else.

Sometimes the mail system will send you notification that your mail could not be delivered. When that happens, don't just resend the note; try to find out what the problem was. You may have put the wrong address on the message, or a gateway between mail systems might be down, or the other person's mail system might be down, or there might be a problem with your own mail system. Here's what to do:

• Ask around and find out whether your colleagues are having problems with your local mail system. If the answer is no,
• Call the other person and check whether you used the right email address.
• If you used the correct address, ask whether they've been having email problems.

If it turns out that you used the wrong address, you can just resend the message using the right one. If there's a mail system problem, or if you can't figure out what the problem is, you'll have to resend the message later or figure out alternative means of transferring the information.

If you're sending email to the Internet, and you don't have any other way of getting through, you can send a query to postmaster@yourrecipients.domain. Internet system administration convention requires that there be a real live person at the postmaster address, one who may or may not be willing to help with your problem. (Of course, this only works if you have the right domain name.)

If you've sent email to someone and haven't received a response as quickly as you expected, don't just assume that your correspondent is goofing off. Give him the benefit of the doubt and check whether your message ever arrived. This is a variation on the old grandparents' trick for eliciting prompt thank-you notes: "I didn't get a letter so I was worried that you didn't receive my gift." It works pretty well. If the note was, in fact, lost, you've done your correspondent a favor. And if it wasn't, you'll probably embarrass him into action.