E-mail has really changed over the years. It started formal, then up until a couple of years ago e-mail was very informal. Now e-mail should be sent in a formal format and it should include proper format, capitalization, and punctuation again. It should however reflect your familiarity to the recipient.

E-mails should follow a format similar to a business letter and include proper greeting, body, and closing. If this is a first time correspondence with the recipient, the use of last names might be proper. Once a relationship has been established, use of first names would be permissible.

Proper capitalization should also be followed, capitalizing all proper names and first words of sentences. E-mails should not be sent in all lower or all upper case. Those of you who work with their caplocks on, should turn it off when typing an e-mail.

The use of periods, commas, and other punctuation makes your message easier to read and understand. Another tip that will make your e-mails easier to read is breaking up your paragraphs with a blank line. The use of white spaces allows the eyes to rest before continuing on with the next paragraph.

The topic for next week will be Spam!!!
Until next week - happy e-mailing!
Andy Gartner

May 7, 2001

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