From TNPC issue #4.07...

TNPC Primer - Email Basics Part 1

by T.J. Lee
April 5, 2001

I get a lot of email. Sure, much of it is spam and most of that never sees the light of my inbox since I use a filter that shunts the most obvious into the bit bucket. But aside from the spam I still get a lot of email. As publisher of this newsletter, in my role as a consultant and project manager for PRIME Consulting Group, Inc., as Cubmaster of Pack 11, I even have the dubious honor of being included on the group list that my wife and her sisters have. Whilst digging through my inbox this morning I decided that it might be timely to do a primer on the basics of email because so many people (I'm not saying my sisters-in-law are in this group, but I'm not saying they're not either, if you get my drift) seem to be using email without a solid understanding of how it should be used.

Now before any of you get riled I'm not saying that my recommendations about email usage are gospel. I'm just making some suggestions that I think might help people who are new to the email game.

First let's contemplate the email message itself. Email is the electronic equivalent of writing a letter and sending it to someone in the post. The electronic part makes it much faster than the USPS and you don't have to pop for 34 cents (here in the USA) so it's free. This is good as far as it goes. Unfortunately the speed and ease with which email lets us reach out and touch someone, seems to have helped make it a lot more impersonal than the letter we all learned how to craft in school. Things get lost in our hurry to hit the send button. Like a greeting, punctuation, whole sentences, paragraphs. Basic stuff that makes your communications easier for the recipient to figure out.

If you write to someone it's always nice to include a greeting be it something as simple as:

Jim,

It's also a good idea to close with your name especially if the person you're emailing does not know you outside the context of the email. It's awkward when you reply to a message and the best you can do for a salutation is fish something from the header like: "Dear 123iggy@example.com"

Replying seems to give people troube. Generally, in a business context you shouldn't reply to something unless the message specifically calls for a response or a response is necessary given the context of the message. Unfortunately, given the often unreliable nature of email an acknowledgement that the message was received is sometimes necessary. It's ironic the number of times I've emailed someone then had to phone them to see if they got the email. Sure you can use the confirmation request option that a number of email client software packages have but you may not get an automatic confirmation depending on the type of client software your recipient is using and the email servers your message passes through to get to them.

You also want to be aware of the difference between a "Reply" and a "Reply to All". A message that you've received may have been sent to more addresses than just yours. For example, if your address was in the To: line of the original message along with 10 other addresses and you hit "Reply to All" your response goes to all 10 names. Likewise if you "Forward" a message all the addresses in the To: line are visible and accessible to whomever you forwarded the original message to. So some discussion of the To: line is definitely in order.

The To: line is where you put the address of the person you are sending your message to. This is usually only the person you want to take action regarding the contents of your message. If you want other people to know about the message but not necessarily reply or take direct action you should include their addresses on the Cc: or Bcc: lines.

The Cc: stands for carbon copy, or courtesy copy if you prefer. If you're old enough to remember trying to stack paper and carbons and roll the whole shooting match into a typewriter you'll understand the reference. Bcc: stands for "blind" carbon copy. General rule of thumb is you copy people who need to know but don't need to respond. The "blind" carbon address line Bcc: differs from the Cc: line in that the recipient sees the address of the person(s) to whom the original message was sent but they cannot see the other addresses of those who were also included on the Bcc: line, hence the term "blind" carbon copy.

If send a message with an address like this:

To: Lee
Cc: Dan, Matt
Bcc: Al

Everyone knows I sent the message to Lee. Lee knows I sent a copy of the email to Dan and Matt. Dan knows Matt got a copy, Matt knows Dan got a copy, but neither Lee, Matt, nor Dan know that Al got a copy. Say I wanted to send a message to Lee, Dan, Matt, and Al but did not want any of them to know who else I sent the message to. I would address the message to myself and include everyone else on the Bcc: line.

To: Jim
Cc:
Bcc: Dan, Matt, Al, Lee

This is the way you send a message to a bunch of people but you don't want to share each person's email address with everyone you're sending the message to. It's bad email etiquette to share email addresses with groups of people unless the people who own the email addresses being shared have given their permission.

More on this topic in another issue.

You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com

Return to Top

TNPC Hot Tips:

• Email out of control? Spam filling your inbox? People trying to steal your identity? Same here - until I applied these tips. You can too in a new multimedia e-book. Tame Your Email.

• DO YOU MAKE THESE MONEY MISTAKES? Do you know that trying to pay off your high interest rate debts first and/or paying extra on more than one debt is the SLOWEST way to get out of debt? Don't make these same mistakes. Learn more at by clicking here...