Publish mail etiquette
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layout: page
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title: Email ettiquette
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language: en
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ref: mail-ettiquette
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---
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I have seen many people having problem with using email, especially from my classmates.
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Writing email is an important skill, and knowing how to write email properly is respecting
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the recipient.
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In this article I am writing about:
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- Structure of a good email
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- Information you should include in an email
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- What not to include in an email
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It also includes my email preference. If you violate too many red flags I stated here I probably won't read your mail.
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# Email Structure
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Here is a generic email structure:
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[Tag] Subject
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Greeting: Hi/Dear [name]/Sir/Madame/To whom it may concern,
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Introduction
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Elaboration
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Regards
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Signature
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## Subject
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Some people find it hard to come up with a good email subject.
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## Greeting
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It's not a problem for most people, though I have personally received many emails without greeting.
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An email is not a private message, and even for private message you probably should do a greeting
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before a conversation as well.
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Note:
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- Hi/Hello is informal, so you probably should avoid it if you don't know the person.
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- You could include the person's title (e.g., Dr.) if you like and the other person is comfortable, but for me personally, don't use Mr.
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- Refer to the person with their preferred name. For me, this means don't use my family name[^1]. Also, don't deadname trans people.
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## Introduction
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It is necessary to introduce yourself if you and the other person don't know each other. Start with
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My name is... I am ...
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I am writing this mail to ...
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If you know the person, you can just come to the reason you're writing this mail.
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## Regards and Signature
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To close an email, you should end it with:
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- Sincerely,
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- Regards,
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- Yours cordially,
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- Best,
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... followed by your name.
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# Send in plain text
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# Language
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# Pronoun
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# Attachment
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[^1]: I would say it's the same for all other Vietnamese people. Vietnamese people currently has quite few family name,
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and most of them are "Nguyen", therefore we never refer to one another as family name. This could be different for other Asian culture,
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e.g. Chinese or Japanese people may use family name in formal situation.
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---
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layout: page
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title: Email
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language: en
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ref: mail-etiquette
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---
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I have seen many people having problem with using email, especially from my classmates.
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Writing email is an important skill, and knowing how to write email properly is respecting
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the recipient.
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In this article I am writing about how to write a proper mail,
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my email preferences, and some technical issues related to email.
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If you violate too many red flags I stated here I probably won't read your mail.
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### Contents
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* Table of contents
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{:toc}
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# Email Structure
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Here is a generic email structure:
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[Tag] Subject
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Greeting: Hi/Dear [name]/Sir/Madame/To whom it may concern,
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Introduction
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Elaboration
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Regards
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Signature
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## Subject
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Some people find it hard to come up with a good email subject.
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You can (and should) include a short tag to let the recipient know about the topic
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before reading the whole subject line, unless they requested otherwise.
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## Greeting
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It's not a problem for most people, though I have personally received many emails without greeting.
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An email is not a private message, and even for private message you probably should do a greeting
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before a conversation as well.
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Note:
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- Hi/Hello is informal, so you probably should avoid it if you don't know the person.
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- You could include the person's title (e.g., Dr.) if you like and the other person is comfortable, but for me personally, don't use Mr.
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- Refer to the person with their preferred name. For me, this means don't use my family name[^1]. Also, don't deadname trans people.
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## Introduction
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It is necessary to introduce yourself if you and the other person don't know each other. Start with
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My name is... I am ...
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I am writing this mail to ...
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If you know the person, you can just come to the reason you're writing this mail.
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## Regards and Signature
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To close an email, you should end it with:
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- Sincerely,
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- Regards,
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- Yours cordially,
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- Best,
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... followed by your name.
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# Language
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This should go without saying, but when someone sends you an email in a language,
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don't reply in another, unless you're asked to.
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## Pronoun
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Pronoun is a sensitive topic, and mispronoun someone can make [zem]
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feel very uncomfortable.
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In English, this is not very a common problem, since first and second pronouns
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are neutral. In other languages, such as French or German, it is not. Using "tu"
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or "du/ihr" in a formal email (i.e. not with your friends) will make you look
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very unprofessional. Choosing pronouns is a difficult problem in a deeper level,
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since the pronouns depend on age, gender, social status, job, etc and not
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just the formalness. That's why I don't like writing in Vietnamese.
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# Attachment
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This is a rather technical topic, but it's simple to follow.
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[Don't send Word documents][no-word]. Words are not only bloated and inefficient,
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it also poses malware and virus threats. Of course, you wouldn't attach those, but for
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safety many people including me would not take the risk.
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Instead, just include the text inside the email if it is not long, export the document
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as pdf, HTML, or plain text file.
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Similarly, don't send RAR archive. RAR is a proprietary archive format, which means
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free software cannot open it. Please use an open format like ZIP instead, or better yet,
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just attach individual files in the email - I can preview without download that way.
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# Send in plain text
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This is a rather technical topic, but it's simple to follow.
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I'm not dictating which format you should use when emailing someone else, but please do
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this when you send me an email.
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HTML text is preferred by marketers, since they can embed bloated images and GIFs in the
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email, which can assist their intended purpose.
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However, I recommend writing mails only in plain text for following reason:
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- HTML allows phishing
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- HTML makes tracking possible, which doesn't respect recipient's privacy
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- HTML emails are less accessible (I will make a post about accessibility and link here)
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In fact, many mail clients only display plain text and not HTML. On the other hand, all
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mail clients can display plain text.
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Many mailing list blocks HTML. HTML is for the web, which email is not[^2].
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Read [this page][useplaintext] to see how to write mail in plain text file.
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## What if I want to include an image?
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Attach it as a file and refer to that.
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## Links are usually long and I'm afraid it can be disruptive
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You can use reference, like this:
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Please read the post [1] for more information.
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...
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[1]: https://example.org/this-link-is-long-and-disruptive
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[^1]: I would say it's the same for all other Vietnamese people. Vietnamese people currently has quite few family name,
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and most of them are "Nguyễn", therefore we never refer to one another as family name. This could be different for other Asian culture,
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e.g. Chinese or Japanese people may use family name in formal situation.
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[^2]: They work on entirely different protocols, with different formats.
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[useplaintext]: https://useplaintext.email
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[zem]: /menglish.html
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[no-word]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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