Understanding E-Mail

Chapter Five

Understanding E-Mail

E-mail still makes up a majority of Internet traffic today because everyone with Internet access has an e-mail account, even though he or she may not have access to newsgroups, the World Wide Web, or other portions of the Internet. Undoubtedly, 20 million people can send a lot of e-mail!

In this lesson, you find the answers to the following questions:

• What is an e-mail address?
• Are all e-mail addresses the same?
• What are some examples of how to use e-mail?
• What are the basic parts of an e-mail message?
• Should I follow any rules or etiquette when using e-mail?

No matter what e-mail client you use, you will find the concepts and principles in this lesson universal.

The First Step: E-Mail Addresses

E-mail addresses are relatively easy to understand. In fact, if you read Lesson 1, "The Internet: What's It Really Like?" you're already halfway there. Every e-mail address has three necessary elements:

n User ID: Every person with an e-mail address has a user identification of some sort. It is usually something simple, like johndoe, but can be more complex.

• @: The "at" sign connects the user ID with the third element.
• Domain: You have already learned about domain names; every e-mail address has one.

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CAUTION: E-mail addresses never contain spaces or commas. If you see an e-mail address with a comma or space in it, you know right away that it is invalid. This rule includes CompuServe addresses, which do contain commas. If you're e-mailing to a CompuServe address from an Internet e-mail account, replace the comma with a period.

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So, to put it all together, a typical e-mail address contains all three of the preceding elements. One example of an e-mail address is johndoe@nomansland.com.

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Time Saver: You might see some pretty strange addresses in your travels. If you see an e-mail address that you're really not sure about, simply reply to the message (as explained in Lesson 6) and make note of the e-mail address to which your client attempts to send the message. Your reply most often goes to the correct address.

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Why Do You Use E-Mail?

I gave you some examples and reasons for using e-mail in Lesson 2, "Internet Uses in the Modern World," but you're ready for a little more detail now. The examples in the following sections are not meant to be exhaustive but should be enough to convince you that e-mail is a valuable tool.

"Let's Do E-Mail"

Our society is becoming increasingly interconnected. Networking, in the personal and societal sense of the word, is vital. The old maxim "It's not who you know, it's what you know" has never been truer. And you'll find no better networking tool than e-mail.

The following are some examples of how you can use e-mail to network with others:

• The mere act of having an e-mail address gives you an advantage for networking and collaboration. In how many people without a phone would you invest your time, business, and interest? E-mail is the phone number of today and the future. Simply having an e-mail address opens you up to a whole new avenue of connectivity.
• When you're working on a group project, either for business or personal purposes, you can e-mail ideas, feedback, and drafts of work to every member of the team. Often, without e-mail, these vital parts of collaboration have to be delayed until everyone can get together for a meeting.
• Join a listserv related to a project or personal interest of yours. You'll find no substitute for having access to experts and other interested parties all over the world.

Cheaper Than a Dime a Minute

Sorry, long-distance companies, you don't have the lowest rates; e-mail does. Even among commercial providers who charge hourly to use their service, you simply can't communicate less expensively than by sending e-mail.

For the $2.95 per hour a typical service provider might charge for access, you can send dozens of e-mail messages for the same price it would cost you to place a typical three-minute long-distance phone call. Of course, if you get Internet access through a provider that charges a flat fee with no hourly charges, you save even more.

In addition, using e-mail usually provides a big time savings. E-mail doesn't have to sit on hold, play phone tag, or deal with busy signals, even during the busiest times of day. You can sit down, type out your message, and move on, knowing that the person on the other end will get your message as soon as possible.

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Just A Minute: Don't kid yourself about using e-mail, though. You can't find a substitute for having an intimate dinner, hearing grandma's voice on the phone, or sealing a deal with a firm handshake. No one would suggest that you become an e-mail hermit by forgoing other, more personal forms of communication. Used with common sense, however, e-mail makes a lot of sense (and cents).

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Anatomy of an E-Mail Message

The e-mail message is the cornerstone of all communications on the Internet. But what is in an e-mail message and how do the parts work together?

Every e-mail message contains two basic parts: the header and the body. To help you understand this description, think of any typical letter you write and mail to someone. You write your letter on paper, which then goes in an envelope, where you provide the recipient's name, address, city, state, and ZIP code. You can think of an e-mail message header as a digital envelope and the body as your electronic letter.

Message Headers

Because your e-mail message will go through dozens of high-speed computer networks on the way to its destination, an e-mail header is by necessity more complex than the name and address you put on an envelope. Figure 5.1, for example, shows a typical e-mail message header.

Fortunately, you don't need to know or worry about what all the different items in a message header are. Instead, slow down your racing heart by viewing what a typical message header looks like when you compose e-mail, as shown in Figure 5.2.

The following are the different headers you need to be concerned about when sending e-mail:

• To: The To: field contains the e-mail address of the person to whom you are sending e-mail. Often, if you're sending e-mail to someone in your own domain, you don't need to include @domain. If johndoe@nomansland.com sends e-mail to janedoe@nomansland.com, for example, he can probably just put janedoe in the To: field. Depending on what e-mail client you use, this field is sometimes called the Message To: or Mail To: field.
• From: This field includes your e-mail address. You almost never have to worry about this field because most e-mail clients automatically fill it in for you.

Figure 5.1.

Imagine if you had to put all this information on your next letter to Grandpa.

Figure 5.2.

Now this header is more like it. You really need to know only a few header elements.

• Subject: The Subject: field should contain a very short (20-30 characters) description of what your message is about. This field can also be called Subject of Message: or simply Message:.
• CC: Most secretaries know that "CC" stands for Carbon Copy. This field contains the e-mail addresses of additional recipients. Most people put one e-mail address in the To: field and "copy" others by putting their addresses in the CC: field.
• BCC: Many e-mail clients either hide this field or don't give you quick access to it. This "black sheep" header field, which stands for Blind Carbon Copy, gives you a way of copying an e-mail message to another person without the first person you send the message knowing about it. Although this field has legitimate uses, people often use the BCC: field to send e-mail behind others' backs.
• Attachments: Some e-mail clients don't offer this field. Many clients, however, enable you to attach entire documents to e-mail messages. I will discuss this powerful tool in greater detail in Lesson 7, "Using E-Mail Like the Pros."

When all is said and done, a message header looks something like the one pictured in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3.

A typical e-mail header is simple and easy to understand.

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Time Saver: One header you don't see that you should know about is the Date: header. Although you usually never see it, many e-mail servers require it to process e-mail. If you use an e-mail client on a PC or Macintosh, make sure your Time and Date control panels are set to ensure that your e-mail has the appropriate time and date headers.

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The Body

The body of an e-mail message is even easier to describe. It's simply the text that you want the person on the other end to see when he or she receives your message. In the next section, "E-Mail Etiquette and Conventions," I talk about some of the common rules to follow, but here are a few general rules:

• Try to keep messages short and to the point. With the exception of personal messages, you send e-mail to busy people (after all, you're a busy person too, right?). It is not uncommon for someone "on e-mail" to receive in excess of 100 messages a day.
• Make sure the Subject: field describes your message accurately. Many people who get lots of e-mail decide whether they're going to read a message based on the subject.
• Break up your message into short paragraphs. There is nothing worse than having to reply to a message that is one long paragraph. These messages are hard to read on a computer screen.
• Finally, don't be a pest. If you e-mail someone, assume that he or she received the message and will get back to you. If a couple of days go by, of course, you can send a reminder. Sending a message to someone every hour will only succeed in getting that person mad.

After all your hard work and diligence, you may end up with a short and concise message like the one shown in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4.

Often, a short e-mail message is effective.

E-Mail Etiquette and Conventions

E-mail etiquette is one of those areas that could easily take up a whole guide. In fact, you can find entire guides about the etiquette and standards for e-mail use. In the following sections, I talk about only a few of the bigger areas involved in how to "make friends and influence people" through e-mail.

Mind Your Manners

Would you go to a foreign country for an extended visit without trying to learn about (and adapt to) that country's culture? If you did, you might end up getting funny stares because you refused an offer of food, or you might get kicked out of the country because you didn't realize that laughing out loud at someone's mistake is considered a grave insult.

Well, the same is true on the Internet. As I talked about earlier, the Internet culture has been around for 25 years. Typing a message in the wrong way might just get you flamed.

New Term: Flame: On the Internet, a flame is a message that is, um, quite hot. Flames are messages that often contain profanity, question your heritage, and basically berate and belittle people. Flames can be either justified or unjustified. DO be as polite and courteous in e-mail as you would be face-to-face. People are more often inclined to be rude when they have a sense of anonymity.

DO exercise self-control. I use what I call the "24-hour rule." If I receive an e-mail message that offends me or makes me mad, I wait 24 hours before replying. More often than not, I realize the person who sent me the insulting message isn't worth my time. The rest of the time, I come to the conclusion that I have more important things to do.

DO try to be considerate by using proper grammar and punctuation so that the recipient can understand what you're saying. Lots of run-on sentences with oodles of spelling errors make for a bad reading experience.

DO use common sense. If you write a message for which you want a response, tell the recipient to please respond. If you're writing to someone you don't know for the first time, introduce yourself first. Courtesy and common sense are qualities to which almost everyone responds.

DON'T SCREAM. TYPING IN ALL CAPITALS IS CONSIDERED SCREAMING AND IS OFFENSIVE. Type as you would write a normal letter, using proper punctuation and syntax.

DON'T become a "leach." Leaches are people who go to others on the Internet for all their answers and can end up being really annoying. Most people on the Internet are more than willing to help someone who really needs it, but e-mailing someone to find out how to spell "ridiculous" is, well, ridiculous.

DON'T spam. Spam is any mass-mailed material meant for self-promotion, advertisement, or pure silliness. Spam, or electronic junk mail, is probably one of the most offensive acts on the Internet and, if you happen to send spam to an Internet veteran, you could find your e-mail account full of megabytes of junk until you apologize.

Tips for Brevity and Clarity

Believe it or not, you can shorten and clarify even when you're typing in simple text message. The following are some commonly used abbreviations on the Internet:

To further help you clarify your point, you also can use a couple other accepted conventions:

Emoticons

Conveying emotions in an e-mail message is tough. It is, in many people's opinions, one of the reasons that so much flaming and miscommunication occur on the Net. Face it, people interpret communication based not just on words, but on tone of voice, curvature of the lips, position of the body, and more. None of these factors are present in e-mail. It's just you, the text, and the reader. Using emoticons (short for emotional icons) is one way of trying to get across the emotion in what you say.

The following is a short list of but a few of the thousands of emoticons that you will see in your e-mail travels:

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CAUTION: Just like anything, if overused, emoticons become useless and even annoying. Don't start using emoticons everywhere. Use them conservatively and where appropriate. When used appropriately, however, they can effectively connote sarcasm, humor, sadness, or any number of other emotions.

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Look at the sample e-mail message in Figure 5.5. It incorporates many of the items listed in this section. Can you spot them all?

Figure 5.5.

This message has many elements of effective e-mail.

Summary

In this lesson, I took you through a quick tour to understanding e-mail. You learned that the user ID, an @ sign, and a domain name make up every e-mail address on the Internet. You also discovered some of the practical reasons you might want to use e-mail.

I then went on to explain the different parts of a message header (To:, From:, Subject:, CC:, BCC:, and Attachments:), as well as appropriate material for message bodies. Finally, I described some of the nuances of using e-mail, such as etiquette, proper ways to make your messages more concise and clear, and how to add emotion to what you write.

Workshop

The following workshop helps solidify the skills that you learned in this lesson.

Q&A

Q I've heard that emoticons can really annoy some people. If this is true, should I use them?

A Hey, some people get annoyed if you look at them. Should you stop looking at people? Yes, some people really dislike emoticons, but these people will usually tell you. For the most part, when you use emoticons appropriately, many people will appreciate your attempts to communicate more effectively.

Q I like to see all the little details. Can I see the entire header of all my messages?

A If you really want to see the entire header, most e-mail clients provide ways of viewing it. Look for preferences or options in your client that talk about how to "expand headers" or "display header information."

Q I have a friend who gave me an e-mail address that didn't look like any of your examples. Is it likely that this address is correct?

A If the address has a continuous string of characters, followed by an @ sign and then another continuous string of characters (some of which are usually periods), it is probably a valid address. Just make sure that no commas or spaces appear in the address, and give it a try.

Quiz

Take the following quiz to see how much you've learned.

Questions

(b) 99%clx!!x%@uunet.net