OIT News

	Read your email regularly - daily if possible - ignoring a message is discourteous and confusing to the sender.
	Always reply, even if a brief acknowledgment is all you can manage. This will avoid doubt in the mind of the sender that you have received the message.
	Reply promptly - email systems often do not have the conventional ‘pending’ trays of the desktop, so it may be easy to forget an email message.
	Put your reply at the top of the message.
	Be tolerant of others’ mistakes. Some people are new to email, and may not be good typists, or they may accidentally delete your message and ask you to resend it.
	If you quote in email information received from any source, you should properly acknowledge it, just as you would in an academic essay or published work. The same applies if you reproduce in another medium, information you received in email.
	Never assume that because you have sent a message, it has been read.
	Do not label every message as high priority.
	Do not send “chain letters”, and do not forward such letters.

Signatures

	Your signature should be brief (4 - 5 lines maximum) and informative (include a phone number).
	Do not include drawings, quotations or anything non-business related in your signature.

Keeping Out of Trouble

	Never say anything in email about a third party that you would not say directly to that person. If this was to come to that person’s attention you could be unpleasantly surprised to discover that defamation by email can carry the same consequences as by any other medium.
	Remember that your message can be redirected to a third party without your knowledge or consent.
	Do not Flame. Flaming is intemperately aggressive and abusive language used to criticize others. If a discussion is becoming emotionally charged, get out of email and use the phone, write a letter, or go and see the person.
	Use humor, sarcasm and irony sparingly: they may not be self-evident to all readers. Email lacks the cues such as facial expression and body language. You can easily convey the wrong impression.
	Do not pretend you are someone else when sending email. To pretend you are someone else is fraudulent, and could lead to legal consequences.
	Do not make changes to someone else’s message and pass it on without making it clear where you have made the changes. This is misrepresentation/ plagiarism.
	Sending email from your university account is similar to sending a letter on university letterhead, so be aware that your communication is identified as such.

Posted by Anna Sniadach on February 26, 2006 7:00 AM | Permalink