Module 2- Email tasks

I found the Email Tutorial useful and well set out. I'll get back to that Ohio State Universities net.TUTOR. See if it can help me out in other areas.

1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

A user's email can tell you a lot, apart from the obvious. It can tell you :

-the urgency of the message. Does the subject demand attention?

-the priority the sender is placing on getting a reply. Does it ask for a response? How?

-the thoughtfulness of the sender. Is the message clear, concise, easy on the eye, technically compatible?

-the user's perception of their relationship with you. Is the language formal and businesslike, familiar, or over familiar?

- the user's perception of you. Have they shared an offensive, racist, sexist joke with you? Porn?

-if the user composed the message just for you. Is it a reply to your own message? Has it been forwarded to you from someone else? 

-where the email came from. Does the email address indicate that it comes from the workplace? Is the message's intent commercial?

-the message's source. It will show the IP addresses it has gone through, the other email addresses it has been sent to, what email program was used to write the message, the encoding type of the text.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?

'cc' (carbon copy) is used to send an email message to multiple recipients. It is useful for sending messages within a group of people who know each, because it tells each individual recipient the sender's name and email address, and the name and email address of all other recipients. Everyone is receiving the same information, and everyone knows it. 

 'bcc' (blind carbon copy) sends email messages to multiple recipients, but does not contain the recipient's email address in the message. It is useful for preserving privacy, when the individual recipients' do not know each other. It may also be useful for keeping people out of the information loop, if they are the subject of the email, particularly if it is unfavourable.

'reply all' sends a reply message to both the original author of the message, and everyone else who received that message through a 'cc' or a 'To' list. I have never used this function, and cannot figure out why you would, as it means you are replying to a group of people who haven't asked for one. It is likely to send unwanted information to an unintended audience.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

-assume nothing. Make sure the recipient is familiar with attachments. Make sure the recipient can read the attachment file you intend sending. Find out if they using Windows or a Macintosh, and save the file in a suitable format.

-find out what type of software they are using. If in doubt, use plain text (ASCII) for text files.

-show the file names of any attachments, and the  program/operating system used to create them, in the body of the text, ie  "A file called boof_data.xls (Excel 2000, Windows) is attached."

- if the attachment is large, compress it by 'zipping' or 'archiving' it. I use the archiving program Winrar  http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

-find out if the recipient has a slow internet connection. If they do, restrain yourself severely with any attachments.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I use gmail which filters out spam very effectively, but for the purposes of this exercise I ran a filter which deletes everything from certain people that is too large- over 500kb. This is useful to guard against time consuming joke videos and the like being sent to you.

I ran subject filters on a number of words and symbols- money, $, viagra, enlargement, etc etc, in an attempt to block the usual suspects from getting through.

I also ran a filter that sends to the junk file, any email that does not have my first name somewhere in the body of the message. This is to stop unwanted mail getting through.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?

The following folders are used:

• INBOX
• UNSENT
• DRAFTS
• SENT
• TRASH

This is the default layout in my email program (Thunderbird) and it is suitable for me. The program allows custom folders to be created, so if you needed to store a category of emails separately, they could be moved to a custom folder.