- Consider the Alternatives: rather than using e-mail as the default means of communication, consider whether a telephone call or even a brief, personal visit might be more efficient and effective.
- Avoid Unintended Reactions: construct your e-mail messages with careful consideration of who will be reading them and how the readers are likely to respond to the messages’ content and tone –indeed, keep in mind that messages can be forwarded and/or photocopied, and shared with others than the intended audience.
- Avoid Exerting Inappropriate Pressure: all members of the community should avoid using the Groupwise distribution lists to promote political candidates, recommend places of business, etc.; faculty and senior staffers should be especially sensitive to the implicit pressure such group messages can exert on other members of the community. Before sending messages to large groups, please consult the University rules on sending group emails: http://www.oit.duke.edu/group-email/
- Be Thorough Yet Concise: include sufficient information, but not more than necessary, to allow the readers to use the information you are providing or to respond to your questions.
- Limit the Audience: it is almost always better to send e-mails posing questions to one person at a time; otherwise, each of the multiple recipients opens the message, considers the question, perhaps even researches the answer, and then responds (or even e-mails others to determine the answer) – even after the question has been answered by another recipient(s).
- Retract “Moot” Messages: if a message has not yet been responded to, but the subject matter of the message has been resolved or for some other reason is no longer relevant, retract the message; otherwise, the recipient will read it at some point and respond to it, when neither is necessary.
- Limit the Life of Time-Sensitive Messages: if a message has a short “life-span,” after which it will have no relevance to the recipients (such as notice of an event), program the message to “expire” at the appropriate time (e.g., the day after the event), so no one reads a message that is no longer relevant.
- Use the Correct Distribution Group: be certain you have correctly identified the members of the group name you are using. For example, if you want the message to go only to governing faculty, be certain to send it to “Governing Faculty” not to “Faculty” in the Groupwise address book. “Faculty” includes all faculty – visiting faculty, adjuncts, etc.
- Keep the Message Short: many readers lose patience with and interest in long messages; so, when possible, limit them to only a few paragraphs, or open with a summary paragraph that communicates the essential information – i.e., assume all of the readers will not get to the end of any long messages.
- Limit Creativity: strictly limit the use of color, unusual typeface (including oversized font), and other devices to spice-up your messages; your readers receive many messages each day and expect (and want) to have the information delivered succinctly, simply, and without distraction.
- Double-Space between Paragraphs: some “white space” between paragraphs makes it easier for your readers to identify and remember your points of information.
- Run Spellcheck: eliminate misspelled words and other distractions that interfere with the communication of your information.
- Include the Original Message: when replying to a message, click the “include message received from sender” box when appropriate, so that the recipient of your message can understand your reply. After the passage of time, a reply without the original message can be quite cryptic, requiring the recipient of the reply message to find the original message and consider both messages together.
