Netiquette and Tone

Netiquette is online etiquette. Just like when interacting with your professors and classmates in the classroom, care should be taken when sending emails or posting to discussion forums so as to not disrupt the learning environment.

General Rules to Follow When Interacting Online

• Avoid typing in all-caps. This can be perceived as yelling or anger.
• Avoid using bright colors or hard to read fonts. Some of your instructors or classmates may not be able to read your message.
• Use complete sentences, proper punctuation, and correct spelling and grammar. Not only do many instructors expect this from you when contacting them, it also makes it easier for others to understand you.
• Make sure you are only contacting the intended recipients of your message. Using the "reply all" button will reply to every person included on the original email. Accidentally using the "reply all" button may cause you to send information to others you did not wish for them to know, or may otherwise be seen as "spam" by your instructor and classmates.
• Watch the tone of your email. Online, things may be taken differently than you intended. If you are making a request of your instructor, for example, be sure you are asking clear questions and not making demands.
• If you are forwarding an email to someone, let them know why they might be interested or why they need to know about the email.
• If you are attaching a file to an email, let the recipient know why you are sending the file and what it contains.
• Keep it short. Don’t add only necessary facts, and avoid being overly wordy.

When to Use To, CC, and BCC

Add someone to the To field when the message directly affects them. If you are asking someone for something, their email address should be placed in the To field. Your email messages should always have someone listed in the To field.

Add someone to the CC field when you want them to be aware of the email, but they won’t need to take a direct action.

Add someone to the BCC field when that person should receive a copy of the email, but you do not want other recipients to know that person received a copy. In other words, people listed in the To and CC fields will be visible to each other as recipients, and no one except you will know the person in the BCC field received a copy.

Next, check out some Email Security tips.