Netiquette

Be judicious in your use of email.  Don’t send anything you would not want to see in tomorrow’s newspaper.  There are no security guarantees with electronic mail.  Avoid sending ANY confidential or sensitive information via email.  Electronic mail passes through at least one other computer between you and your recipient and usually passes through several. Thus your mail could be saved as part of backing up these other computers (servers) and can be retrieved by officials with warrants as well as by unauthorized persons who work with the server computers. Remember that it’s very easy for someone else to forward messages you thought were confidential.
 

Use the “re:” or Subject field so that the recipient can view the topic among many email messages.  Include FYI in this field if it is For Your Information and use the priority field only when messages need special attention.
 

Use the signature feature in your email package.  In academic settings, recipients need to know who you are and how to reach you.  Common features include name, address, phone, fax, TTY, email, and URL
 

Do not send abusive, harassing, or threatening messages under any circumstances.
 

Keep messages and replies brief.  When replying, keep messages brief and to the point.  Don’t routinely reproduce a message in its entirety unless that message is below your signature and thus out of the way.  Be selective with what you reproduce and only do it as needed.  Reply at the top of a message you are sending back to someone so they can easily see your response unless your reply would be made simpler and clearer by replying among the lines of the original message. If you do interweave the message and reply, be sure to keep the special leading character “>” at the beginning of the lines of the original message. Alternatively, on some systems, you may use a different font or a different color.
 

Close your email account when you leave your computer.  Anyone could sit down at your keyboard and send out any libelous/offensive/embarrassing message under your name, if you leave it open. Never let a machine in an office or semi-public area “remember” your password. You may do this only on machines in private areas at home.
 

Be cautious when using sarcasm and humor.  Without facial expressions and tone of voice, they do not translate easily through email. Even the use of emoticons, e.g., J or L [Microsoft Word fancies these two with the circle and rotation) or ;-) [a smiley face with a wink], may not fully convey the affective intent.
 

Use normal capitalization; avoid using ALLCAPS.  This is viewed as screaming.
 

Separate your paragraphs with blank lines.  Make your messages inviting to your potential readers.
 

Read the “To:” and “Cc:” lines in your message before you send it.  Are you SURE you want the mail to go there?  Be especially cautious with email from listservs.
 

Avoid sending replies to “all recipients” unless there is a very specific need for everyone to receive the message.  It wastes disk space, clutters up inboxes and can be annoying.
 

Remember that all laws governing copyright, defamation, discrimination and other forms of written communication also apply to email.