This task required the user to go through an online email tutorial in order to gain an understanding of basic email elements. In doing so, the following questions were answered:
What information about a user’s email, origin of a message and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
To begin with each email address contains a username and domain structure e.g. jdoe@bigbank.com.au
From the information contained within the email address structure you can ascertain:
- User Name: The name that the address holder has nominated for that email account.
- Domain: Describes the location of the server (or the computer) on which that account is held/hosted.
- Top Level Domain: Defines the type of entity the email account belongs to and location. Type examples include .com or .co (commercial), .org (not for profit), .gov (government) etc. Location can be determined by looking at whether there is any appended e.g no appendix indicates USA, United Kingdom accounts would be .uk, Australian .au etc.
So using the example above, from an email message received from the address johndoe@bigbank.com.au we can tell that the email has come from user account Jdoe and that this user name belongs to a person called John Doe (the name of the user is prep ended to the email address for incoming mail. e.g.
John Doe <jdoe@bigbank.com.au>
The domain tells us that this account is held on the server of ‘bigbank’, and the top level domain further tells us that ‘bigbank’ is a corporation.
In what cases would you find it useful to use “cc”, “bcc” and “reply all” functions of email?
Normally this line has the addresses of the people who will receive a copy of the original email for information purposes only, but who are not the main recipient of the email.
Generally I use this to keep involved individuals ‘in the loop’ of a key communication. I use it sparingly as I consider email ’spraying’ to be poor use of the tool e.g I have found it annoying in the past when colleagues cc very large numbers of people because it is too hard to consider who needs to receive the message and who does not, or in order to ‘cover themselves’ or absolve themselves of responsibility for ensuring they communicate effectively. Interestingly, in my last company this was a symptom of poor role clarity – a cultural issue, rather than caused by users not understanding the tool’s features properly.
Addresses placed in the “bcc” line are undisclosed (blind) to the recipient of the email. As such, bcc tends to be used where there is a particular reason why the sender does not wish the recipient to know they have included a third party on the communication. Because of the secrecy element, bcc needs to be used with care. Some valid reasons do exist however:
- A recipient may not want his/her email address given out to others. This can be for privacy, which they are entitled to, or as a preventative means of reducing their own spam received.
- Conflicting personalities and interests. There may be a sensitivity that needs to be navigated e.g. using cc to include a supervisor may be interpreted by the main recipient as a threat or coercion. Alternatively bcc can be used to protect commercial sensitivities e.g. it may not be suitable for everyone on the list to know there is an affiliation between two or more of the other parties in the recipient list.
- To increase readability; convey professionalism and respect for privacy. Having multiple email addresses listed takes more space on the screen and can look unprofessional. Additionally, it removes the risk of one of the recipients using reply all inappropriately, thereby implicating you (as the originator you share blame!) in a potentially annoying and invasive series of communications.
When an email is sent to a number of people regarding a meeting or a discussion, instead of replying to each person individually, the recipient can select “reply all” and send their response to all of the other recipients and the original sender.
I can see the benefit of being able to reply to a number of people in one email about a meeting time rather than emailing each individual. It is a useful efficiency. However, it is a function that I always use with care, and never before I ask myself the question ‘do all the people included here need to see my response’ if the answer is no, I will generally edit the recipient list.
In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
It is easy to assume that people who are able to access the Internet and email will have software (as you do) that would allow for attachments to be opened. However this is not always the case. Whilst very common programs such as word, excel and adobe are usually ok in normal practice, there can still be exceptions depending on what version the program is created / read on and in reading Mac created files on PCs. It is preferable to check in advance. This is particularly important if you plan to attach information in a less common format (a graphics file for example).
If you cannot ascertain that the receiver has the correct program to read the attachment, using rich text file format (.rtf) is the safest way to ensure your attachment can be read.
In the past differences in the encoding process created issues with email attachments between Mac and PC users, however these are frequently less common due to developments that allow users to choose their coding convention.
In most cases now, choosing MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) will help to ensure the receiver can decode attachments.
If all else fails copy the information from the document to be attached and paste it into the email. However this is not an effective use of the full capabilities of the Internet and should only be used as a work around in urgent cases (ideally the problem should be ascertained and corrected to allow normal and full use of the available technology in future).
What sort of filters or rules do you have setup and for what purpose?
Filters can be a useful way of harnessing automation and using it to instruct your email program to deal with predictable and /or recurrent events.
Many of my emails need to be evaluated personally before further action can be taken, so in general I don’t use filters to manage the majority of my email, however there are a few exceptions where filters can be used to help me match incoming mail management to my workflow i.e. Where email is sent regularly but does not need to be actioned immediately. Examples of this include staff newsletters, subscribed reading or reports, database reminders etc. In some cases I want to be able to find and read these only when I have time, in other cases, especially where the email relates to regular, recurrent work I have time set aside to do the tasks and only want to access the related email when I am ready to act.
A rule I frequently use is the out of office auto reply – this is for setting an automatic reply to advise senders when I know I am going to be unavailable for a period of time that would impact on my usual response turnaround time.
How have you organized the folder structure of your email and why?
I find my folder structure to be an essential tool for keeping my workflow organized. My role is made up of adhoc, unpredictable requests and queries, various unrelated projects and some related subprojects and regular communication.
I also use folders as a way of retaining copies of past correspondence should I need to revisit a conversation later.
I set up a folder for each:
- Project (and a subfolder for any subprojects that may exist)
- Topic/Department or group I am regularly involved e.g. I have a folder for all correspondence relating to an ‘I.T Steering Committee’ that I am a member of. Within that folder I have a subfolder each for meeting minutes, agendas and discussions.
- Regular Task – to do with my role e.g. Monthly Reporting
I also have a few more general folders set up ‘by sender’ E.g. my boss is a poor email user and frequently sends one-word responses to things, often by picking up an entirely separate email subject and hitting reply, he then later forgets what he has sent and cannot seem to refer to his sent mail. For this reason I have used the functionality available, and created a folder for ‘Boss Correspondence’ so I can keep everything & thus maintain a peaceful working life.
I also have one for passwords and other admin emails that I may need to access later.
Lastly, to ensure that I have enough folders but not too many I have a ‘miscellaneous’ folder for anything that I want to keep, but is perhaps too minor / infrequent to create a separate folder for.
I am quite conscious about technology being a tool to help me be more effective, and each folder needs occasional maintenance, so I try to strike a balance between enough folders to allow good traffic management, filing and retrieval, without creating a new monster to rival the existing one (my
Posted by Suze 
Posted by Suze 
Posted by Suze 
