Allowing for Personal Choice -- HTML or Text E-Mail

When you ask readers whether they want your e-mail newsletter in HTML or text e-mail, be sure to honor their preference.

Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2001). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Are You Guilty of Sloppy E-mails? It Can Cost You

Some of the nicest people we know send the most thoughtless e-mails. Many are telegraphic, with a smattering of disconnected words and abbreviations, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. Most are dashed off without review and arrive in their native state: confusing, grammarless and brimful of spelling errors. That's not even to mention lack of logic and transitions.

Canavor, Natalie and Claire Meirowitz. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Automated Email From Websites to Customers

Transactional email can be a website's customer service ambassador, but messages must first survive a ruthless selection process in the user's in-box. Differentiating your message from spam is thus the first duty of email design.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Avoid the Use of Familiar Phrases and Messages in Your Emails

Sometimes copywriters and content writers write in clichés. To a reader, the line has barely any meaning, and certainly no impact. Why not? Because it is too familiar. Because he or she has read the same phrase so many times before, in too many other places.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email

In a conversation, there is some minimum of shared context. You might be in the same physical location, and even on the phone you have, at minimum, commonality of time. When you generate a document for paper, usually there is some context embedded in the medium: the text is in the proceedings of a conference, written on a birthday card, handed to your professor with a batch of Econ 101 term papers, or something similar. With email, you can't assume anything about a sender's location, time, frame of mind, profession, interests, or future value to you. This means, among other things, that you need to be very, very careful about giving your receivers some context. This section will give specific strategies for doing so.

Sherwood, Kaitlin Duck. Webfoot.com (1998). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Changing Uses of Technology: Crisis Communication Responses in a Faculty Strike    

This case study of a faculty strike examines the crisis response strategies of a university and its faculty union and the changing uses of technology to communicate to key stakeholders. An analysis of the types of crisis response strategies reveals that both the university and the faculty union used defensive and ingratiation strategies to build their cases and protect their reputations. The university also used denial to argue that the strike was not disrupting operations. The university and the union both relied on e-mails, Web sites, and press releases to update their constituencies. The difference was that for the union in particular, technology both expanded the options for sending information and accelerated the flow of information when conditions changed. The case study illustrates that technology has diminished an organization's control of crisis communication by opening numerous communication channels for others to use to explain their positions and build support.

Vielhaber, Mary E. and John L. Waltman. JBC (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Email

Collaboration via E-mail and Internet Relay Chat: Understanding Time and Technology    

The purpose of this preliminary study was to structure and begin to study how collaborators working across distance perceive and use e-mail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate their collaborative and decision-making processes. Students from the University of Western Sydney and the University of Minnesota worked in pairs to respond to four decision-making scenarios over a four-week period. Using e-mail, students came to a decision more quickly than when using IRC, and when IRC was slow, students reverted to a series of rapid-fire e-mail messages to facilitate their work. Students appreciated the cross-cultural experience; however, they struggled to create a shared communicative context via the Internet.

Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Collaboration>Email

Communicating Across Cultures by E-mail: Advice for Consultants  

E-mail styles and preferences can vary from country to country, presenting a possible challenge to effective communication. Read on for how to add a personal touch to your messages so that e-mail becomes an asset to your business.

Lash, Becky. Intercom (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Computer Networks and the Technical Writer  

Electronic mail and the computer networks it travels over provide new tools for the fechnical writer to use in researching, composing, and submitting documents. Over these networks, the writer can query authors, seek guidance from other professionals, browse through electronic libraries, and exploit other information resources to aid the writing process.

O'Hara, Frederick M., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Business Communication>Email

A Critical Look at E-mail  

E-mail usage is so common and popular now that we hardly think about it. Because of its prevalence, many people have written critically about it, compelling us to look at our own usage.

Crawley, Charles R. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Communication>Online>Email

CSS and Email, Kissing in a Tree

Despite prevailing wisdom to the contrary, you can safely deploy HTML emails styled with good old-fashioned CSS. If you're not content to roll over and use font tags in your HTML emails, read on.

Wyner, Mark. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS>Email

E-mail and Tattoos: A Primer on Netiquette  

Rogers and Perri discuss the hazards of e-mail and present five tips for using it properly in a professional environment.

Rogers, David J. and Monica C. Perri. Intercom (2000). Articles>Technology>Software>Email

E-Mail in the Classroom Workplace  

E-mail usage creates special concerns in education, and teachers must learn how to make e-mail a more effective tool. Students must be taught how to use e-mail for purposes other than informal communication and to evaluate sources of information gathered through correspondence. Although e-mail presents problems in how and what students learn, it also can foster international learning experiences, provide some students with a clearer method of expressing their ideas, and increase collaboration.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Online>Email

E-Mail is Dead

What did the kids say? Email is dead. It's hanging on as a mode of communication for adults (that's us) and within businesses. Kids will even use it to communicate with adults. But for the majority of kids, email has been replaced by two things: text messaging and social networks.

Lentz, Michelle. Write Technology (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

E-Mail Notifications: Making Unsubscription Easy

Unsubscribing email newsletters and other email notification services can be an unpleasant and time-consuming experience. Most unsubscribe problems can be avoided by making the subscribers email visible and linking to an unsubscribe page in all emails.

Bohmann, Kristoffer. Bohmann Usability (2001). Articles>Usability>Email

E-tiquette: Rules of the Road  

Hay-Roe presents nine rules for writing clear, concise e-mail messages.

Hay-Roe, Hugh. Intercom (2001). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

The Effect of Typeface on the Perception of Email

This study investigated the effect that a font has on the reader's perception of an email. Based on a previous study by Shaikh, Chaparro, and Fox (2006), a sample email message was presented in three fonts (Calibri, Comic Sans, and Gigi). The three chosen fonts represented a high, medium, and low level of congruency for email messages. The least congruent typeface (Gigi) resulted in different perceptions of the email document and its author. However, no significant differences were found between the moderately and highly congruent fonts.

Shaikh, A. Dawn, Doug Fox and Barbara S. Chaparro. Usability News (2007). Design>Typography>Online>Email

Email in the Workplace: Employees Perceive Email Differently than Employers

Argues that employees' misunderstanding of email in the workplace has in part stemmed from employers not being direct about the need to monitor it. By being clear and direct, employers can possibly reduce misuse and ultimately the need for such intrusive email monitoring.

Knox, Jessica. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Workplace>Email>Privacy

Email Newsletters Pick Up Where Websites Leave Off

Users have highly emotional reactions to newsletters which feel much more personal than websites. In usability testing, success rates were high for subscribe and unsubscribe tasks, but users were frustrated by newsletters that demanded too much of their time.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Web Design>Email>Newsletters

Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion

Newsletter usability has increased since our last study, but the competition for users' attention has also grown with the ever-increasing glut of information.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Marketing>Email

Email Overload in the Workplace: A Multi-Dimensional Exploration

This paper is a multidimensional exploration of email overload, incorporating a mixture of studies and opinions presented by various experts.

Pratt, Andrew. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Workplace>Email