An e-mail is a digital message sent electronically from one computer to one or more other computers. E-mails are flexible and can be used for giving instructions, serving as documentation, providing confirmation, communicating rules and procedures, making recommendations, providing a status update, making an inquiry. Like a memorandum, it is more precise than an oral conversation, it provides a record of the communication, and it can send a single message to a large number of people. During the 1960s, Ray Tomlinson invented e-mail. E-mail operates across computer networks, which today is primarily the Internet. There are primarily three types of e-mails:
a) Direct e-mails: These are the personal e-mails that are sent from one person to another, with content that is designed to do a specific thing, like thank for a meeting, book lunch, introduce the organization, or convey an attachment. They are customized, specific to the sender and recipient, and sent directly from a person’s e-mail address.
b) Broadcast e-mails: These are the newsletters, alerts, advertisements, and other materials that are floated to many different persons or organization. The key point behind this type of e-mail is the one-to-many nature of it.
c) Sequence e-mails: Sometimes called nurture e-mails or drip marketing e-mails, these are a series of e-mails that are sent to a specific person. For example, if your organization does a repeated event – say a seminar for prospective clients – then the attendees likely have an interest.
The main features of e-mail are:
[i] Attachment: Ability to attach the files along the messages.
[ii] Address book: It is also the most important features of e-mail that allows a user to store the information along with the e-mail addresses.
Basic E-Mail Skills-
Let us discuss how e-mail works and what basic skills we need for using e-mail.
To send or receive an e-mail, we must have an account on a mail server. This is similar to our mailing address where we receive letters. Our e-mail message is sent from our computer to a server where the computer looks at the e-mail address and then directs the message on to the server associated with the recipient’s e-mail account. Once our e-mail arrives at its destination mail server, the message is stored in an electronic mailbox until the recipient retrieves it. We can still receive e-mail while our computer is turned off. The mail server collects and stores our incoming e-mail until the next time we access your e-mail by opening our mailbox and downloading our messages.
We can send an e-mail to anyone in the world, as long as we have his or her e-mail address.
[1] Understanding E-mail Addresses
An e-mail address has two main components:
• The user’s name comes before the “@” sign. When we sign up for an e-mail account, we are usually asked to supply a user name (our first initial and last name is often used). The domain name comes after the “@” sign. This refers to the mail server, the computer that stores our electronic mailbox. It is usually the name of a company or organization.
• Finally, there is a dot (.) followed by letters that indicate the type of domain (.com, .edu, .net, .org, .lib, .in, .us, and so on). Example of an e-mail address: abc@gmail.com or abc.123@yahoo.com etc.
[2] Composing and Sending an E-mail Message
Followings are the basic steps for composing an e-mail:
• To create a new e-mail, click the red “Compose Mail” button (on the left-hand side of the screen). Type the recipient’s e-mail address in the “To:” box.
• To send a message to more than one person, you may enter multiple addresses by placing a comma and space between each address. (E.g,: To: jdoe@example.com, me@example.com, dd@example.com)
• Ensure that you correctly enter the e-mail address or the message will be sent either to a different person or returned back to you with a note that it was undeliverable.
• Type the subject of the message in the “Subject:” box. Keeps the subject to a word or phrase summarizing the content of your message (E.g.: Subject: Today’s Work Progress).
• Use your mouse and click inside the message box it is where you will write your e-mail letter, i.e. the body of the message.
• When you are finished typing your message and are ready to send it, click the red “Send” button.
[3] Reading an E-mail Message
To read an e-mail, click on the subject of the e-mail. [Note: Unread messages in your Inbox will be highlighted.]
[4] Replying to a Message
• Open the message that you want to reply.
• Click the “Reply” button, which looks like an arrow pointing to the left. The program will present you with a message already addressed to the sender. The subject line will state “Re:” and then the old message’s subject. You will probably not change the subject line, so the receiver knows that you are replying to a previously an e-mail that was previously sent.
• [Note: the difference between “Reply” and “Reply All.” Clicking the “Reply” button will send your reply only to the original sender of the message. Clicking the “Reply All” button will send your reply to everyone who received the original message.]
• Click in the box above the text to which you are replying.
• Complete you reply message.
• Click “Send” when you are finished typing your message and are ready to send it.
[5] Forwarding a Message
• Open the message you wish to forward to another person.
• Click the down arrow next to the reply arrow.
• Click on “Forward”.
• Type the recipient's address or addresses (if there is more than one recipient) in the “To:" box.
• Type a note above the forwarded message (optional).
• Click "Send".
On the Internet, everything moves at the speed of light, including e-mail. Because e-mail can be sent and received so quickly, it is often written in a more conversational manner than a formal letter. An e-mail with grammatical errors can be viewed as being “sloppy” and so you should ensure that your e-mail is written in a manner that will be deemed appropriate by the person that reads it. Always double check your e-mail before clicking the send button. Use proper grammar; capitalize the letters as and when it is required.
Advanced E-Mail Skill-
Now we are familiar with e-mail basics. There are many advanced features available with e-mail. Let us discuss here these features.
Attachment
An e-mail attachment is a computer file sent along with an e-mail message. One or more files can be attached to any e-mail message and be sent along with it to the recipient. This is typically used as a simple method to share documents and images. We can send one or more files containing texts or images, such as a photograph, sent as part of an e-mail message. However, there are some limitations related to the size of the file. These files are quite common and safe:
• .txt - Plain text file.
• .jpg (or .jpeg) - Image file for photos etc.
• .gif - graphic file.
Click the "Open" or "Choose File" or another similar button to attach the file to your e-mail. Then, continue composing your e-mail (put the e-mail address of the person you want to send the attachment to in the To: field, add a subject and message in the body, and hit Send).
Sending a copy of the mail-
We can send the same contents of the mail to others in two different methods: Cc and Bcc: Cc means CARBON COPY and Bcc means BLIND CARBON COPY. We can use Cc when we want to copy the mail to others publicly, means all the recipients will know, who others are also getting the same mail.
When we use Bcc, it means we want to mail it privately. Any recipients on the Bcc line of an e-mail are not visible to others on the e-mail. For security and privacy reasons, it is best to use the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) feature when sending an e-mail message to a large number of people. When we place e-mail addresses in the Bcc field of a message, those addresses are invisible to the recipients of the e-mail.
Essential E-Mail Skills and Tips-
Here are some tips for Effective E-mail Communication:
Write a clear and concise message.
The message you want to mail should be clear and concise. This saves your time as well as the receivers. You can write this by the following skills: Use bulleted points to clearly express your thoughts and outline the points you are trying to get across in an easy-to-understand format.
Always reread your message and double-check for grammar and misused words before sending an e-mail.
Use spell check after composing your message. You should also make it standard procedure to reread your entire message before sending. This practice reduces the chance of making mistakes.
Copy back salient points when replying to an earlier message.
It is frustrating when someone sends you an e-mail, with a specific answer but you are unable to recall the original issue. This problem can be avoided by copying a portion of the original message alluding to the context.
Use specific subject line descriptions.
Since many e-mail messages go back and forth several times over the course of many weeks, it is important to describe what the reader will find inside the mail accurately.
Ensure the recipient or recipients before sending mail.
E-mail is also ridiculously easy to edit and forward. Keep in mind that sending a message to one person can eventually be viewed by many other unintended parties. Always double-check the recipient line before sending any e-mail.
Never send mail when you are upset.
It is never a good idea to send an e-mail when you are angry or upset. Only later, after we calm down, we revisit the message and realize that we dramatically overreacted. But it would be too late to do anything now, except apologize and try to mend. This is more common than you think.
If you compose an e-mail in anger, wait a predetermined period of time before sending it.
Avoid shortcuts and abbreviations e-mail messages.
Sometimes shortcuts and abbreviations can be used to write or forward a message to our friends for personal e-mail. However, such shortcuts and abbreviations are never to be used to business or official communications. Some common shortcuts like “LOL, BRB, OMG, 2, 4, SMH and u r” are used in personal communication but are simply too casual for most business communication.
Never forward Viral Messages.
Nowadays, many fake messages float in social media. It’s not wise to forward such messages to your contacts. Unless and until you are sure about the messages you received then only forward those messages if it is required.