Email Reflections

I found this section of the course so far the least useful and interesting. While it was good to 'refresh' on good use of email, there was practically nothing in this section that I was not already aware of and not already doing... all the same we have been given some questions to reflection on and answer so here goes....

Messages - What Information Can You See?
A lot of information can be gleaned from an email message. When we look at the message itself, the header section in particular can tell us a lot.

First by looking at where the email message has come from we can see the user name - that may or may not indicate their real name, and the domain or place that hosts the email account. This is only useful to let us know who has sent the message (if it is a user name that is known) and the domain might also give us a clue to where the message has come from, especially if it includes a company or business name.

It is always important to know (especially in a business setting) if the message being received is private or sent to several people. This can be quickly ascertained by looking at the To: and CC: fields in the header.

The date the message is sent is also important and should be visable in the header. If you get a message requesting an action with in a certain time frame (eg, please do xyz by close of business today), would need to acted upon very differently if viewed on the day it was sent, vs the following day.

And perhaps in many ways the most important part is the subject... otherwise how can we know what the email is about!

A habit of mine when I don't know the email address is to scan to the footer first when reading a message to see who it is from - that is provided I even open it, which I may not if the sender is unknown. The information in the footer varies a lot depending on the sender and can range from just a name (sometimes not even that!) through to a full signature with there title, company and contact details for phone, post and fax.

Finally the body or the message - what the sender actually typed. Depending on the quality of the information they have sent, this can tell us a lot or very little at all and will vary from message to message.

Sending and Reply - CC, Bcc and Reply All
The CC option on emails is useful for them times that you need to have someone else see a copy of a message that is not necessary for them. There are a few different times this might be necessary. One example is if your boss requests you complete a task that involves emailing, often in this case (depending on the task though), it might be useful to CC the boss in on message so they know you have completed the task. Another example is when something is being planned, say an event, some people who are not directly involved in the planning may still need to be made aware of important decisions being made, so might be CC'ed in as a way of this happening.

Bcc is useful in much the same way as CC but with a hidden element. When using Bcc the other recipients of the message can't see anyone it was sent to in the Bcc section. I don't consider it polite to use Bcc in most settings. Using Bcc implies that you have something to hide. Despite this there are some legitimate settings for Bcc - mainly to do with privacy of others. For example if you are friends with two people who would not want the other one to know of their email address, but you want to forward the same funny joke to both, Bcc is a way to do this with one message without sharing their email addresses with each other.

While they are often useful, it is important to not overuse CC and Bcc though. No one wants to see a whole email discussion that is not really relevant to them so they can be told the final outcome! When using CC and Bcc think 'does this person really need to be included?'

It is much the same when using the 'reply all' function. Should your reply really be directed at everyone on the original email, or should it only be directed at the sender? If your reply is something of a more private nature, or something that might be confrontational (eg. heavy questioning them on what they are saying or disagreeing with what they sent) to the other party, a private reply should most likely be used. If the reply or even questioning is more of an information reply (eg, Which venue will the meeting be in?) it is likely to be of relevance to everyone so the reply all function might be appropriate. Whether or not reply all should be used really needs to be thought about on an email by email basis.

Attaching Files - Consider the Receiver
One of the biggest issues with email attachments (well ignoring technical issues of a user having trouble using attachments) is the differences in computing systems. It is easy to assume that the person opening your attachment has a compatible computer and compatible software, though this is not always true.

Some ways to ensure the attachment can be opened by the receiver are:

1. Check to see what software they have by asking them, then you can make sure the files you send are compatible to their files.
2. Tell them in the message what software and version was used to make the file, that way they can select the appropriate software at there end to open it.
3. Make the file small enough they can open it quickly - this may require compressing the file. There is nothing worse than waiting that long for a file to download that it either times out and fails or your thought process has moved on to something new.

Another thought on email and its attachments. I have downloaded and installed TextMaker Viewer. I find it is very useful when I receive document attachments in formats my computer is not familiar with, especially when going between Linux and Windows platforms. I have only used it with PCs so I don't know if it works with software from Mac's.

Managing Your Email - Filters
Most of the filters that I use are for ensuring I'm not inundated with junk email. This is mainly true of my web based email accounts, though less of an issue on my work email. I find the amount of filtering I use varies a lot from one email account to the next, at last count I have 8 different email accounts each with its own purpose.

On one of my web based email accounts that is particularly prone to junk email, I have the filter set so every message that is not from someone in my address book already is automatically directed as junk! This places it in a junk mail folder, that I do quickly check about once a week... occasionally there is a legit message from someone I know when they have changed email accounts.

On the other hand I have placed no filters on my work email account. The work server has a lot of filtering and it is almost unheard of for spam or viruses to get through. I have everything go straight to my inbox, and then I manually sort it from there (discussed more in the next section).

One of my other email accounts is used only for the various mailing lists that I have signed up for. In this account I have folders set up for each list and filter the incoming email so it sorts itself to the right folder - this filtering is done by the address of the incoming mail so needs updating occasionally. This way I can attend to the messages when I want instead of wasting time sorting through what could otherwise be a lengthy inbox.

Organisation - Folder Structure
I have two ways I arrange my file structure for emails - one for work and a different one for other emails. This is because the way I use the email accounts, and the way I need to retrieve past emails is different.

For my work email account I have a folder I have called 'Items to action', when checking my email if I have messages that will need more follow up than an immediate reply allows I move them to this folder so I can address them fully when I have the time later in the day. This is because I 'chunk' my email checking, so I read all my new emails at once (I do this a few time throughout the day), so during this time I only reply to messages that would not require more than a quick reply.

The rest of my work email is arranged by topics, with a topic for each area of my job, a topic of any personal messages I receive at work and additional topics for any short term projects (eg organising an event). This allows me to quickly view and retrieve all the emails on what I am doing at once. Within each topic I also have additional folders for sub -topics, but only in the areas with a high volume of email traffic or that are ongoing over a long period of time. This is to further reduce the amount of emails that need to be searched through when seeking specific information form one message.

M personal email is arranged by topics also but in a slightly different way. for example in one email account I have a 'friends' folder and inside it I have put sub-folders one 'family' and one for each 'group' of friends ( I make up nicknames of teach group). I do this as I often use email to plan a social event with a group of friends so want all of the emails together, though usually not between groups. I also have a other category folders such as 'bills', 'memberships', 'shopping' etc with some of these also having sub-folders. Again this is structures in a way that I personally find quick and easy to retrieve past information from.


I would like to acknowledge the tutorial that I have just read on email. No doubt I have paraphrased bits from that site, especially the first couple of topics, only having just read it before writing this!