Sending E-Mails

E-mails are one of those things which you probably use every day, but you don't really use it properly.
If you are emailing your boss, a work colleague or someone you don't know then there are some rules you should follow.

Benefits of sending emails
E-mails are a good way to communicate with people as people can reply to them when it is suitable for them (rather than if you phone someone - if they are not next to their phone then they can't answer it!).
You can write as much or as little as you need to, and assuming you have an internet connection then it is free (faxs are charged per sheet of paper).
You can e-mail several people at once.
You can attach files for people to look at.

Drawbacks of sending emails
If someone is away from their computer (or there computer is broken, or internet connection is down) then they will not be able to read your email.
People can send you spam (emails about rubbish) or phishing (getting you to give people your credit card details or money) or attach viruses which might harm your computer.

Email Ettiquette
When sending an e-mail you should make sure that you start and end it properly, make sure that you spell check it before you send it and use proper English - no slang! It is generally thought of as OK to start an e-mail with "Hello", but you need to decide how formal you need to be depending on who you are e-mailing.

Subject Lines
This should be a summery of what the e-mail is about. Don't try to cram the whole e-mail into the subject line - keep it short and to the point.

Reply
Reply is when you send the original e-mail back to someone and write a responce at the top. Some people like to delete out the original e-mail but you should really keep it there - the person you are replying to might have forgotten what they asked you in the first place.

Forward
Forward is when you pass the original e-mail onto other people. You should always write at the top of the e-mail what is about to avoid confusion.

CC
CC stands for carbon copy. It is where you want other people to read the e-mail even though it might not have been intended for them originally.
Example: A pupil in a class e-mails the teacher a question about the work they are doing. The teacher replies to the pupil, but thnks that it was agood question and everyone would benefit from seeing the e-mail so the teacher CC's all the other pupils into the email. The original pupil gets the e-mail, but so does everyone else in the class.

BCC
BCC stands for blind carbon copy. This works the same as CC but the original person doesn't know the e-mail has also been sent to other people.
Example: a customer e-mails a resteraunt about poor service they recieved. The person in charge of customer service replies to the e-mail offering an apology and 25% off their next meal. The customer service person BCC's the manager into the e-mail, the manager will get a copy of the e-mail but the customer does not know that they have.

Attachments
You can attach files to e-mails although there is usually a maximum file size.

Risks of attachments
When people send emails, they can attach things which might do your computer harm, or they might send you things which are innappropriate to view whilst at work or school. You should make sure that you trust the person who has sent you the email, if you don't then don't open the attachment!
People can send you viruses, worms, trojan horses, amongst other things and all of these can harm your computer so be careful when opening attachments.

Priorities
E-mails can be sent with different priorities so the person who is recieving the email knows how important it is. Most emails are sent with a normal priorty, although the priority can be changed to High (important) or Low (not important).

Address books
An address book is where you save contacts who you email regularly. It is a quick way to access peoples email addresses and it means that you don't have to remember people's actual email addresses because it is saved in the address book.

E-Mail Signatures
An email signature is something which appears automatically at the bottom of every email you send. If you are the manager of a company instead of writing your name and the fact you are the manager at the end of every email you simply write it once in the email signature box and it will appear at the bottom of all of your emails.