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Communication netiquettes
JUST because email has become an everyday part of our life, specially in the offices, it doesn’t mean it’s something you don’t have to think carefully about when using it. Sending or receiving ill-conceived or improper email can lead to embarrassment.
Following are some tips, nettiquette, to help you use email to your advantage:
Keep it short and sweet. Email is not a form of communication that lends itself to lenghty composition. If you do send a long email, if you send a product description to a potential client, for instance, or if you send a clarification of departmental policy, make sure you go over the details in person as well as in your email, since relying on your email to communicate all the details often fails. And use paragraphs-readers have a much easier time deciphering longer emails that impart information in discreet, readable chunks than in endless-seeming blocks of text.
Avoid discussing sensitive information. Despite the seeming harmlessness of email, it is not really private. It’s way too simple for the recipient of your email to forward it to others. And remember that “peeping-toms” can access any email going into or out of your account.
Rule number one for emailing sensitive information: Assume that any email you send will be read by people other than its intended recipients. Apart from another reason to avoid including sensitive information in email is that you might change your mind about whether you want to let that information be known.
Rule number two for emailing sensitive information: Think before you hit “send.”
Know when to use email, and when to have a discussion in person or over the phone. These days people like to use email for all kinds of purposes for which it is usually not ideal. If you want to brainstorm, or to manage or critique others, it’s usually best to do so in person — or, failing that, over the phone.
There are a number of reasons for this. For one thing, email does not communicate unspoken nuances the way personal communication does. For another, people are often not as “present” when they read email as they are in a real-time meeting. Think about it: How many times have you thought you communicated something perfectly clearly via email, only to have to go over it all again later in person?
Apart from conducting serious business via email, it also provides laughter in life. Friends and acquaintences living in far away places are able to share chuckles and make you laugh. Just hit “Forward” and addresses from the directory, hit “send” and people will receive the material you had received within seconds to enjoy.
We received the following definitions, which we couldn’t find in the dictionary!
Adult: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.
Beauty parlour: A place where women curl up and dye.
Cannibal: Someone who is fed up with people.
Committee: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
Egotist: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.
Gossip: A person who will never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.
Handkerchief: Cold storage.
Inflation: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.
Mosquito: An insect that makes you like flies better.
Raisin: Grape with a sunburn.
Secret: Something you tell to one person at a time.
Toothache: The pain that drives you to extraction.
Tomorrow: One of the greatest labour saving devices of today.
Yawn: An honest opinion openly expressed.
Wrinkles: Something other people have. You have character lines.
And the following to think about:
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, not life to years.
“We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things. We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.
“We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.
“These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships.
“These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
“These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit “delete”.
The writer
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