e-mail Issues and Solutions (Advisory)

This advisory is specifically for the student generation of today. Everyone uses multiple online identities for e-mail and social networking. Many of you do not use multiple sign-in nor use multiple browsers to manage your various accounts simultaneously, thereby missing e-mails sent to other accounts or sending professional emails from accounts you did not originally intend to use.

 Remember to use your "Firstname Lastname" (e.g. "Sunil Baskar" in my case) and the actual email address specifically the name part of 'name@domain.ext' should be professional and not a pet name or nickname by which professional conversations cannot be addressed to you in future. I use firstname.lastname@domain.ext as sunil.beta@parisuthamtech.co.in to make access easier.

Read on for the Twelve Commandments of using e-mail effectively.

1. When you use multiple e-mail ids, please keep one for all professional communications. This must be regularly checked and responses must be within 24 hours.
2. Use multiple sign-in feature of online e-mail clients (eg: google mail) or use a lightweight IMAP client that can simultaneously connect you to all your e-mail addresses.
3. Always reply to emails from the same email id that the mail was sent to even if you have a multiple e-mail id feature. If you would like to change the email id in the conversation cc: your response to the correct email address and mention the need to change the conversation address in the e-mail.
4. Use e-mail threads for effective communication. Always devote one e-mail to one topic. Avoid discussing multiple subjects within one e-mail.
5. e-mails must be short but communicative. It should fit within the window of a mobile e-mail reader or tablet and the full message must be present without having to scroll down as the person you are e-mailing to may have hundreds of messages to read.
6. If you have sent an e-mail to a wrong e-mail address, you will get a return message warning after which you can correct the email and send. It is sometimes prudent to add the word "(Corrected)" to the subject to indicate that this mail has been sent again. 
7. Do not "Fwd:" mails to the person who must read your e-mail. This will result in unnecessary confusion.
8. e-mail is written record. Do not contradict information you sent in your earlier e-mails as most professional e-mail reading tools make it easy to see the conversation even if you did not use an e-mail thread.
9. Having multiple e-mail addresses with the same provider is acceptable on the Terms of Service of some service providers only. It is a law in Australia that you should never have any ambiguous or fake identities on the Internet as it is equivalent to criminal impersonation. 
10. Do not delete responses to e-mails unless you have no other option. Even in that case, maintain a saved version or hard copy for future reference. This will be of immense help to you.
11. If you send email to the wrong email id, similar to dialing the wrong number, as email is an offline medium, it is polite to send another email to apologize for having sent incorrect email.
12. Within your own College or Organization  you can limit the number of Thank You e-mails as it is almost impossible to thank someone for all the emails. It is better to reserve them for emails you get from outside contacts to ensure that they keep in touch.

There are hundreds of additional tips on using email more effectively. Some of these will be given to you in due course as and when you need it.

(Directorate of Technology, Incubation and Placement)