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E-mail etiquette tips

E-mail is a relatively new form of asynchronous communication, falling somewhere between paper memos and phone calls.  People are not always conscious of the consequences of behaving as if it were paper or talk.  Following are some guidelines I wrote for our staff.


E-mail tips:
  • On your computer, use Google-Chrome for school gmail
    • Login to gmail first, before google-drive or docs or photos or classroom
    • Better NOT to use the computer’s “Mail” app
    • Use “Mail” or another browser for your personal e-mail
  • On your phone, use the Gmail app for school gmail
    • Better NOT to use the phone’s “Mail” app
    • One reason: AppleMail cannot actually delete gmail items
    • Another reason: helps keep professional and personal e-mail separate
  • Always include an informative subject line
    • some e-mail systems consider blank subject line to be junk
    • We read the subject line to decide whether to open the e-mail itself
  • We want our students to use good language
    • double-check our spelling and grammar, and
    • clarify ownership and responsibility
  • Greeting?  Target your audience!  
    • “Hello all”  is useless -- it has no time reference, no human reference.  Why should you write it?  Why should I read it?
    • Good Afternoon? What if I read it at night, or in the morning?
    • Best to specify your target so they know why they should read it: for example: To all teachers of Grade7;  or To Promethean board users
  • Address?  Target your audience: it is so easy to just shotgun your e-mail, send it to all-staff.  You do not pay any price, so it seems free.  But it is not really free.  We all pay for it with our attention; when we receive useless e-mail, we stop paying attention to all e-mail.  STOP! Take a few seconds to consider who really needs to see this e-mail.
  • Value:  The more e-mails sent, the less each one is worth.  Make it worth our while!
    • Better to wait for completeness and accuracy than to send multiple e-mails with corrections...once we see a shotgun pattern, we tend to ignore it, waiting for the next correction.
  • ASAP?  Really?  Include a realistic deadline, or explain your emergency.  Why is this more important than anything the recipients are doing?  You may want to apologize first, if this emergency was caused by your lack of planning.
  • Context: you may be focused on your topic, but your recipients are not; explain your issue, expand abbreviations, include universal day references
    • Not just tomorrow, but tomorrow the 11th (you wrote it on the 10th, but when will I read it?)
    • Not just my classroom, but my classroom B216
    • Not just refer to the supervision schedule, but refer to the supervision schedule (if you know where the document is, then include the link; otherwise why do you ask people to search for the wrong document?)
  • Work-Life balance:  school policy is:
    • Check school gmail at least before school and after school;
    • Respond within a school day
    • Use group mailing lists carefully, for official purposes
    • Be particularly careful with the large group lists
      • Staff -- does everyone on staff really need to see this?
      • Teachers -- do all teachers really need to read this?
    • Send personal notes such as lost items or for-sale items to the Classified Notices mail group.
    • E-mail is asynchronous communication, not instant:  we may send e-mail any time day or night or weekend or holiday, but we expect a response only before-school or after-school.
    • Do NOT feel obligated to respond within the school day (we should focus on being with the students)
    • Do NOT feel obligated to respond at night, or on a weekend (we should focus on our family)
  • Summary checklist:
    • Did I write a clear subject line?
    • Did I target the right people, and address them specifically?
    • Does everyone addressed really need to see this?
    • Did I include clear time references: time and date, maybe day of the week?
    • Did I include clear action items:  what am I asking the addressees to do?
    • If I were to receive this e-mail next week, would I readily understand the point?
    • Would I mind if this e-mail were posted on the lobby bulletin board?

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