1. Introduction

 

 

Always put a meaningful heading in the subject so that the recipient can prioritise reading.

 

Restrict the content to a single subject as reflected in the heading: ie, one subject per email.

 

Stick to plain text and use a standard arial font in a dark colour with a white coloured backgrounds as other combinations can be difficult to read, especially for people with special needs. You should also avoid the use of animated graphics.

 

Please do not type in upper case as this is perceived as the equivalent of SHOUTING!

 

Always add your name and title and the University's standard disclaimer* (below) as a signature at the end of every email.

*This e-mail and its attachments are intended for the above named only and may be confidential.  If they have come to you in error you must not copy or show them to anyone, nor should you take any action based on them, other than to notify the error by replying to the sender.

 

Be very careful with the use of sarcasm and humour. Without the benefit of a social context and feedback your joke may be viewed as criticism and cause offence.

 

Keep messages short and to the point but be aware that very cryptic or abrupt messages may be regarded as rude because of the lack of context.

 

Do not expect recipients to read and deal with your messages immediately. Many of us now receive hundreds of e-mails a day and they have to be prioritised and dealt with during free time between other commitments.

 

 

A concerted effort should be made to reduce unnecessary email usage and to use direct or telephone conversation wherever practicable. If email is the most appropriate method of communication the messages should be accurate, courteous and above all, necessary. Although the technology facilitates widespread copying and the use of distribution lists, messages should only be sent on a 'need to know' basis - particularly when they contain attachments. If you must use email avoid use of the 'Urgent' button as much as possible (if it's that urgent pick up the phone!). Try to avoid the use of email to a colleague who works in the same office! It's better to accumulate a list of things you want to talk to them about and then go and talk to them once instead of interrupting them several times! Reduce the frequency of your checks for new email messages - preferably to just twice a day. If you do need to check more frequently than that try and keep the checks at least 30 minutes apart. This way you reduce distractions in your working day and reduce the load on the system. It is however advisable to ensure you do check your messages a minimum of twice a day.

 

 

Do not leave a machine which is logged into your email account unattended, unless it is disabled by a password protected screen saver (and do not leave your password written on a piece of paper adjacent to your machine). Others may use your password to gain access to your email and may impersonate you in sending email. You should never disclose the password you use to gain access to your account to others as they may use your account to impersonate you and send emails in your name. In either case you will be the one held responsible, unless you can prove that you were not (which may be difficult).

 

If you receive email which appears to come from a particular individual and yet is out of character with their normal style treat it as the result of possible impersonation until you have had the chance to confirm it as genuine.

 

Take great care when addressing email messages, to avoid mis-delivery. This is particularly true when sending to email addresses which consist primarily of numbers. You are most at risk when sending email to people with whom you have never communicated before, or infrequent correspondents for whom you do not have an alias set up. When sending important information it is often helpful to have the intended recipient send you an email first and then use the email 'Reply' facility. You are well advised not to send via email material which you would not be happy sending in an unsealed envelope, unless you have made explicit arrangements to exchange the material via a secure email channel with the recipient. As a rule of thumb, only send information by email that you would be prepared to send on university headed notepaper.

 

Ensure that email sent to you 'for your eyes only' is not sent to unattended shared printers and that printed copies of emails are not left lying around.

 

Never assume that only the person you are sending to will see your message; they may have authorized others to see their accounts or they may be sitting in an open plan area. They can also easily (in error or deliberately) forward it to someone else who may not respect your confidence. Once you press 'send' you have lost control and your message could be on the internet within minutes, and in the papers tomorrow!

 

Email is not secure. System managers and support staff may see messages and there is always the possibility of illicit access. Likewise any email which you intend to rely upon (eg, if it forms part of a commercial negotiation or contract for goods, services or employment) should be printed off and carefully stored in a folder where it is unlikely to be deleted accidentally. You should observe the same standards of confidentiality for electronically held or generated information as you do for hard copies.

 

 

Attachments have become over-used so please only use when they are the most efficient method of sending a document: eg, to a number of people attending a meeting - though this should not be used as an excuse for sending papers out at the last minute. In particular you should consider the impact of sending large documents of over ten pages as attachments to busy users. Consider that if people are busy they will not open them, and in some cases may not be able to. For routine correspondence it is better to copy and paste a file into the body of your email as this saves space and time and reduces the risk of transmitting viruses, or of a sensitive document falling into the wrong hands. Be very careful when sending documents as attachments because Word and Excel files may contain information relating to earlier corrections to a document or to material which previously occupied the disk space currently occupied by your file. Whilst this hidden material is generally not seen by the recipient under some circumstances it might be. Word files sent in RTF format (Save As RTF from the files dialog) greatly lessen this danger and in most cases are smaller in size. In addition they have the advantage of being readable by ALL versions of Word and many other packages.

 

Before clicking on a document attached to an incoming email check to ensure it is a genuine document file (.doc, docx, .xls, etc.) and not an executable file (.com, .exe, etc) which may carry viruses, etc. You should also ensure that you use the facilities within Word to check for files with attached macros and choose to disable any macros found should that occur. If you are working from home install a reliable virus protection program and ensure that it is kept up-to-date.

 

 

Delete all junk mail, chain mail, and any dubious unsolicited mail unopened and never open any attachments if you are suspicious about the source or contents of an email. Never forward on chain letters promising good luck etc. If you send or receive purely personal messages at work clearly identify them with the word "personal" in the subject line. If you receive jokes or images from friends consider carefully whether the content could cause offence or breach policies on diversity and dignity at work before forwarding them. If in doubt, delete straight away. Never be tempted to use the university's email system or distribution lists to circulate unsolicited political material to staff, students or mailing lists. Bear in mind that use of the University's email facilities is subject to the rules laid down in the ECP and misuse may result in disciplinary action.

 

Remember that an email message is legally equivalent to a letter. It can be defamatory and can form the basis of a contractual or legal claim. Although there is greater tolerance of grammatical and spelling errors in email, as regards content you must take as much care in composing them as you would a hard copy letter. (This is particularly true of 'informal' requests for references). Email exchanges are subject to disclosure in the event of formal proceedings, and claims against the University may result from inadvertent or negligent disclosure of medical records, confidential employment records or commercially sensitive information (or material pertaining to it). Considerable problems, embarrassment and expense might be caused by the inadvertent disclosure of examination questions, external examiners' reports or examination marks. Sending any of these things via normal email exposes both you and the University to risk.

 

 

Because of the immediacy of email we can give it undue prominence over other work and correspondence, and need to work hard to avoid this. Create a routine for dealing with email: eg, twice a day, and don't be tempted to use managing your email as a displacement activity for more urgent tasks.

 

Clear or delete your emails regularly to save on disk space. Set up folders for dealing with your main task areas or most frequent correspondents so that you can put less urgent emails in folders for attention later. This will help keep your inbox clear and avoid massive backlogs which result in important messages becoming lost or overlooked.

 

Keep subscriptions to discussion groups or mailing lists to an absolute minimum. Contact individual list members directly rather than replying to the whole list.

 

If you are going on leave or sabbatical make sure you put a 'bounce-back' message on your email account stating who should be contacted in your absence, along with their contact details. This can be done via 'Options' in Webmail. The University version of Webmail now allows for a start and end time for 'bounce-back' messages to be stated so that they automatically stop at the time selected.