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E-Etiquette

E-Etiquette

Date: Aug 31 2007

Themes: How To, Tech

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

hey,

when u write emails do you bother to capitalize letters or punctuate correctly. since email is so new, there aren’t really standardized rules for how to format them. some people prefer to make emails relatively formal, while others, perhaps because they send so many emails each day, write them as quickly as possible.

k, listen to kevin and mason talk about how they decide how formal an email ought to be.

thx,

ebaby

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Kevin

Kevin

Mason

Mason

Kevin:  So you know I teach at the university, and when my students email me, I notice such a range of ways in which they write emails.

Mason:  But you’re teaching English, right?

Kevin:  I teach Spanish.

Mason:  Oh you’re teaching Spanish, so you’re dealing with English speaking kids writing emails.

Kevin:  Correct.

Mason:  Really? And there’s a lot of different style to it?

Kevin:  Some are very friendly. Of course they call me Kevin, which is totally fine. They say, “Hey Kevin” and, you know, to me, anytime I write an email to, well, almost anyone, I would write their name and have a salutation at the end.

Mason:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kevin:  But a lot of people just don’t do that. I get “Hey,” and no name at the end. It’s unbelievable.

Mason:  You know, well now that I think about it, people that I write a lot of emails to, like my coworkers, who I email maybe 10 times a day, we kind of do away with all formalities.

Kevin:  Fair enough, fair enough.

Mason:  It’s more or less like a text message.

Kevin:  No capital letters?

Mason:  Well, I’ll capitalize sentences. I mean, I respect sentence structure. I don’t abbreviate words. There’s no lol, bff sort of stuff. But you know, I won’t be as formal.

Kevin:  That’s tricky.

 

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Discussion

As a professor at the university, Kevin gets quite a few emails from his students, and he says that they come in a range of formats. Mason initially thinks that the wide variance is because Kevin is teaching English to people who don’t fully know the language. But Kevin reminds him that he teaches Spanish, so most of his students are native English speakers.

It’s okay with Kevin that his students use a friendly tone in their emails. He lets them call him by his first name anyway. But it does bother him that sometimes his students don’t address him by name at all when they email him and that they often don’t sign their messages.

Mason says that when he sends emails to his coworkers, who he emails many times each day, there is almost no formality. He says the emails are almost like text messages. Kevin asks if Mason capitalizes and he says he does and that he doesn’t use Internet abbreviations either.

How do you usually format emails? Do you write them differently depending on who you’re sending them to?

 

Comments

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pink angel

pink angel

Saudi Arabia

very nice advice i have never pay attention to the capiyalization at  the beginning of the sentence and the salutation at the end special at the email while in the writting letters i did it

 

thank you so much

08:59 AM Aug 03 2008 |

adorisa

Ghana

In fact, we should all learn from this minor, minor mistakes.

 

09:05 AM Dec 06 2007 |

Goofyguy

Goofyguy

United States

Using correct language in a chat or an email to me just shows that a person is intelligent and has a command of the language. Someone who uses a lot of abbreviations (plz for please, b4 for before, etc…) just comes across as either too lazy to write out the extra few letters or else they cannot spell. There are a few exceptions to this (lol, brb, that are pretty useful) but generally if you want to appear intelligent, try and avoid too many chat shortcuts and never use them in an email to anyone who is not well known to you…

08:25 AM Dec 06 2007 |

icingblue813

China

   I think it depends whom I send to!I don't use abbreviations too much.Actually,I don't know much about them.But I don't care much about formalities.It is just a business of form.I think the content is more important,and as for our good friends,less formal can seem to be more closer!

03:58 AM Oct 20 2007 |

sakthi

India

hai how are you, iam sakkthi,

lets we are friends,

02:42 PM Sep 14 2007 |

Romy2611

Romy2611

Brazil

I think it depends…if you're writing to a very close friend, it's ok not to worry about formalities. If you're writing to your boss, it's prudent to pay attention to the way you write; if it's to a coworker and you're exchanging professional information, like ideas for a project, etc, I see no problem to relax and write casually. But in any situation, we must be carefull to make our message as clear as possible to the addressee.

08:04 PM Sep 06 2007 |

GarO

GarO

China

it's a good topic for us to share. Indeed, I always pay attention to wording, spelling and formality of the emails that I sent out, not to mention when I sending emails to my boss.

However, most of the emails I received from my boss were informal style. How come he treat things so casual. I do wanna know whether he does so to his supervisor?

03:54 PM Sep 06 2007 |

victor25

victor25

Moldova, Republic Of

Kevin:  But a lot of people just don’t do that. I get “Hey,” and no name at the end. It’s unbelievable.

 

Yep, it's unbelievable and rude. More or less they are writing to a teacher and they must respect some formalities, otherwise it shows lack of primary education. What is really sad! 

10:44 AM Sep 06 2007 |

nancy001

United States


Hello,
Thanks for the msg/interests..My name is nancy mill , from Nyc Usa. But presently in nigeria for a modelling seminar which is gonna end in 3/4 days from now
Am 5, 4 inches tall, 148lbs, blonde hair and hazel eye. i love doing anything out door like camping, swiming, runing, take a work to the beach, moving house, shopping. travelling and ready to relocate to any other state. Am here looking for a real love couse i have been hurt so many times and i really will not like it to happen to me so am here now for a longtime relationship..
Am nice and caring woman , honest, easy going, kind, friendly, truthful, faithful, and trust worthy and same i want my man to be also, so that we both can live happily… I don't have a kid' never been married before, but date and did not work out. i love kid's and i dont mind having mine with the rite partner.
Well , i really need to stop here for now and am hopping on hearing from u soon. If u really interested in me and want to know more about me please email me on this Address : and i get back to u.
With Love,
Nancy

11:12 PM Sep 04 2007 |

Romy2611

Romy2611

Brazil

Thanks a lot, Alice Green….great help!!

07:04 PM Sep 03 2007 |

OLIVER

Italy

STARTED   TO  STUDY FIVE MONTHS AGOTHEREFORE  I  NEED  TO  WRITE  IN  CORRECT  FORM  EVEN  IF  I  WRITE  SOMEONE  THAT  I  KNOW  WELL   .
SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH !!!

12:27 PM Sep 03 2007 |

OLIVER

Italy

STARTED  TO STUDY ENGLISH  FIVE MONTHS  AGO'   AND  NOW  I NEED  TO  WRITING  IN  COMPLETE  FORM  EVEN  IF  I  WRITE  WITH  MY  FRIENDS  BUT  ALL  email 

12:23 PM Sep 03 2007 |

s_fasi

s_fasi

India

Nice lesson, yes i do agree with it, that there should be etiquette while u write your mails and i do follow. Thanx and best of luck.

syed 

05:55 AM Sep 03 2007 |

samyue82

samyue82

China

actully,it’s dependo on whom you email to .I think so and i do.I email to my colleague informal,but to my clients formal.

04:04 PM Sep 02 2007 |

shimanaz

shimanaz

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

The quantity doesn’t have to influence the quality

07:47 PM Sep 01 2007 |

wuwu7799

wuwu7799

China

我刚刚到啊,,,。好想跟你们一起聊天哦。。。用英语聊啊

01:53 PM Sep 01 2007 |

setayesh

setayesh

Afghanistan

its nice lesson thanks

01:16 PM Sep 01 2007 |

setayesh

setayesh

Afghanistan

In my head, its very important we learn to write formality letters , but use of that depands on whom we want to sending email to.For instance,its not much necessary to standardized rules for our best friends or people  who we are sending a lot of email during days. But for some others who we don’t know them I think, we must write formalities . also its shows our respect to them . and its formal.

01:10 PM Sep 01 2007 |

jacobkutty

India

I don't abbrevate words.  But very often I forget to write the nme of the person to whom I send mail.  

10:48 AM Sep 01 2007 |

sherryleio

sherryleio

China

It depends on whom I am sending emails to…When I send emails to my customers, I often pay much attention to format the messages I am going to send out. I am not so formal when I send so many emails to my coworkers a day, but I still capitalize sentences.  When I send emails to online friends, ooops, lots of Internet abbreviations, like lol, btw, fyi…huh.

03:54 AM Sep 01 2007 |

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