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Using the Lesson
Board
First of all, in using
the course "Lesson Board" which is found in the university's ANGEL
distance learning software, notice that the Lesson Board consists of
a series of "Session" and "Drop Box" folders. The "Session"
folders are for the exclusive use of the professor while the "Drop"
box folders are for the use of students. Any student work
placed in the "Session" folders will not be graded, nor will any
work placed in the wrong "Drop" box. Use the "Drop" box that matches
the week that the homework is assigned or use the "Drop" box that is
designated for an examination to be turned in to. For a thorough
orientation to the Lesson Board go to the following
link.
Email Etiquette Rules:
The
instructor will not tolerate email messages on ANGEL or in any
other email message that is not completely polite, civil and
respectful in tone. Students who choose to violate this
expectation will find themselves either dismissed from the class
or flunked. Consequently, the student is well advised to attend
to the following 34 etiquette rules.
There are many etiquette guides and many different
etiquette rules. Some rules will differ according to the nature
of your business and the corporate culture. Below we list what
we consider as the 34 most important email etiquette rules that
apply to nearly all companies.
34 most important email etiquette tips:
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Be concise and to
the point: Do not make an e-mail longer than
it needs to be. Remember that reading an e-mail is harder
than reading printed communications and a long e-mail can be
very discouraging to read.
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Answer all
questions, and pre-empt further questions: An
email reply must answer all questions, and pre-empt further
questions – If you do not answer all the questions in the
original email, you will receive further e-mails regarding
the unanswered questions, which will not only waste your
time and your customer’s time but also cause considerable
frustration. Moreover, if you are able to pre-empt relevant
questions, your customer will be grateful and impressed with
your efficient and thoughtful customer service. Imagine for
instance that a customer sends you an email asking which
credit cards you accept. Instead of just listing the credit
card types, you can guess that their next question will be
about how they can order, so you also include some order
information and a URL to your order page. Customers will
definitely appreciate this.
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Use proper
spelling, grammar & punctuation: This is not
only important because improper spelling, grammar and
punctuation give a bad impression of your company, it is
also important for conveying the message properly. E-mails
with no full stops or commas are difficult to read and can
sometimes even change the meaning of the text. And, if your
program has a spell checking option, why not use it?
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Make it
personal: Not only should the e-mail be
personally addressed, it should also include personal
i.e. customized content. For this reason auto replies
are usually not very effective. However, templates can
be used effectively in this way, see next tip.
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Use templates for
frequently used responses: Some questions you
get over and over again, such as directions to your office
or how to subscribe to your newsletter. Save these texts as
response templates and paste these into your message when
you need them. You can save your templates in a Word
document, or use pre-formatted emails. Even better is a tool
such as
ReplyMate for Outlook
(allows you to use 10 templates for free).
Answer swiftly:
Customers send an e-mail because they wish to receive a
quick response. If they did not want a quick response they
would send a letter or a fax. Therefore, each e-mail should
be replied to within at least 24 hours, and preferably
within the same working day. If the email is complicated,
just send an email back saying that you have received it and
that you will get back to them. This will put the customer's
mind at rest and usually customers will then be very
patient!
Do not attach
unnecessary files: By sending large
attachments you can annoy customers and even bring down
their e-mail system. Wherever possible try to compress
attachments and only send attachments when they are
productive. Moreover, you need to have a good virus scanner
in place since your customers will not be very happy if you
send them documents full of viruses!
Use proper
structure & layout: Since reading from a
screen is more difficult than reading from paper, the
structure and lay out is very important for e-mail messages.
Use short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph.
When making points, number them or mark each point as
separate to keep the overview.
Do not overuse
the high priority option:We all know the story
of the boy who cried wolf. If you overuse the high priority
option, it will lose its function when you really need it.
Moreover, even if a mail has high priority, your message
will come across as slightly aggressive if you flag it as
'high priority'.
Do not write in
CAPITALS: IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS
IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and might
trigger an unwanted response in the form of a flame mail.
Therefore, try not to send any email text in capitals.
Don't leave out
the message thread: When you reply to an
email, you must include the original mail in your reply, in
other words click 'Reply', instead of 'New Mail'. Some
people say that you must remove the previous message since
this has already been sent and is therefore unnecessary.
However, I could not agree less. If you receive many emails
you obviously cannot remember each individual email. This
means that a 'threadless email' will not provide enough
information and you will have to spend a frustratingly long
time to find out the context of the email in order to deal
with it. Leaving the thread might take a fraction longer in
download time, but it will save the recipient much more time
and frustration in looking for the related emails in their
inbox!
Add disclaimers
to your emails:
It is
important to add disclaimers to your internal and external
mails, since this can help protect your company from
liability. Consider the following scenario: an employee
accidentally forwards a virus to a customer by email. The
customer decides to sue your company for damages. If you add
a disclaimer at the bottom of every external mail, saying
that the recipient must check each email for viruses and
that it cannot be held liable for any transmitted viruses,
this will surely be of help to you in court (read more about
email disclaimers).
Another example: an employee sues the company for allowing a
racist email to circulate the office. If your company has an
email policy
in place and adds an email disclaimer to every mail that
states that employees are expressly required not to make
defamatory statements, you have a good case of proving that
the company did everything it could to prevent offensive
emails.
Read the email
before you send it: A lot of people don't
bother to read an email before they send it out, as can be
seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained
in emails. Apart from this, reading your email through the
eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective
message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate
comments.
Do not overuse
Reply to All: Only use Reply to All if you
really need your message to be seen by each person who
received the original message.
Mailings > use
the Bcc: field or do a mail merge: When
sending an email mailing, some people place all the email
addresses in the To: field. There are two drawbacks to this
practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the
same message to a large number of recipients, and (2) you
are publicizing someone else's email address without their
permission. One way to get round this is to place all
addresses in the Bcc: field. However, the recipient will
only see the address from the To: field in their email, so
if this was empty, the To: field will be blank and this
might look like spamming. You could include the mailing list
email address in the To: field, or even better, if you have
Microsoft Outlook and Word you can do a mail merge and
create one message for each recipient. A mail merge also
allows you to use fields in the message so that you can for
instance address each recipient personally. For more
information on how to do a Word mail merge, consult the Help
in Word.
Take care with
abbreviations and emoticons: In business
emails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the
way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The recipient might not be
aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in business
emails these are generally not appropriate. The same goes
for emoticons, such as the smiley :-). If you are not sure
whether your recipient knows what it means, it is better not
to use it.
Be careful with
formatting: Remember that when you use
formatting in your emails, the sender might not be able to
view formatting, or might see different fonts than you had
intended. When using colors, use a color that is easy to
read on the background.
Take care with
rich text and HTML messages:Be aware that when
you send an email in rich text or HTML format, the sender
might only be able to receive plain text emails. If this is
the case, the recipient will receive your message as a .txt
attachment. Most email clients however, including Microsoft
Outlook, are able to receive HTML and rich text messages.
Do not forward
chain letters: Do not forward chain letters.
We can safely say that all of them are hoaxes. Just delete
the letters as soon as you receive them.
Do not request
delivery and read receipts: This will almost
always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read
your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since
the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her
software might not support it, so what is the use of using
it? If you want to know whether an email was received it is
better to ask the recipient to let you know if it was
received.
Do not ask to
recall a message: Biggest chances are that
your message has already been delivered and read. A recall
request would look very silly in that case wouldn't it? It
is better just to send an email to say that you have made a
mistake. This will look much more honest than trying to
recall a message.
Do not copy a
message or attachment without permission: Do
not copy a message or attachment belonging to another user
without permission of the originator. If you do not ask
permission first, you might be infringing on copyright laws.
Do not use email
to discuss confidential information: Sending
an email is like sending a postcard. If you don't want your
email to be displayed on a lesson board, don't send it.
Moreover, never make any libelous, sexist or racially
discriminating comments in emails, even if they are meant to
be a joke.
Use a meaningful
subject: Try to use a subject that is
meaningful to the recipient as well as yourself. For
instance, when you send an email to a company requesting
information about a product, it is better to mention the
actual name of the product, e.g. 'Product A information'
than to just say 'product information' or the company's name
in the subject.
Use
active instead of passive: Try to use the
active voice of a verb wherever possible. For instance, 'We
will process your order today', sounds better than 'Your
order will be processed today'. The first sounds more
personal, whereas the latter, especially when used
frequently, sounds unnecessarily formal.
Avoid using
URGENT and IMPORTANT: Even more so than the
high-priority option, you must at all times try to avoid
these types of words in an email or subject line. Only use
this if it is a really, really urgent or important message.
Avoid long
sentences: Try to keep your sentences to a
maximum of 15-20 words. Email is meant to be a quick medium
and requires a different kind of writing than letters. Also
take care not to send emails that are too long. If a person
receives an email that looks like a dissertation, chances
are that they will not even attempt to read it!
Don't send or
forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive,
racist or obscene remarks: By sending or even
just forwarding one libelous, or offensive remark in an
email, you and your company can face court cases resulting
in multi-million dollar penalties.
Don't forward
virus hoaxes and chain letters: If you receive
an email message warning you of a new unstoppable virus that
will immediately delete everything from your computer, this
is most probably a hoax. By forwarding hoaxes you use
valuable bandwidth and sometimes virus hoaxes contain
viruses themselves, by attaching a so-called file that will
stop the dangerous virus. The same goes for chain letters
that promise incredible riches or ask your help for a
charitable cause. Even if the content seems to be bona fide,
the senders are usually not. Since it is impossible to find
out whether a chain letter is real or not, the best place
for it is the recycle bin.
Keep your
language gender neutral: In this day and age,
avoid using sexist language such as: 'The user should add a
signature by configuring his email program'. Apart from
using he/she, you can also use the neutral gender: ''The
user should add a signature by configuring the email
program'.
Don't reply to
spam: By replying to spam or by unsubscribing,
you are confirming that your email address is 'live'.
Confirming this will only generate even more spam.
Therefore, just hit the delete button or use email software
to remove spam automatically.
Use cc: field
sparingly: Try not to use the cc: field unless
the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving
a copy of the message. Using the cc: field can be confusing
since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act
on the message. Also, when responding to a cc: message,
should you include the other recipient in the cc: field as
well? This will depend on the situation. In general, do not
include the person in the cc: field unless you have a
particular reason for wanting this person to see your
response. Again, make sure that this person will know why
they are receiving a copy.
ALWAYS
remain civil and respectful: Always
insure that your email messages are civil and respectful,
especially when communicating to those who have some
authority in relationship to you. Messages lacking in
civility can result in serious untoward outcomes for the
sender.
Do not send
"broadcast" email messages:
Broadcast email messages are those that re sent to all the
members of a class or everyone on a mailing list. This is an
option only reserved for the instructor and not students.
Messages in class may only be sent between the student and
the instructor and vice versa.
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Basic
Course Requirements:
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Attend
and participate in class on a regular basis through weekly posting of
homework on the ANGEL course
lesson
board (Click on this Lesson
Board link for an orientation on using the lesson board in ANGEL).
Remember that in this
course, the "Session" folders in the Lesson Board is reserved for
the instructor to post class material and is not to be used by
students. Students are to use the designated "drop boxes." Any work
of any kind placed in the "Session" folders will not be graded. Class
attendance is very important in this course. Class participation
centers around participation in completing and posting homework and
posting under the correct sessions on the course Lesson board.
Homework completion counts as 25% of the course grade and also
reflects upon the class participation grade. Students must receive
permission from the instructor to miss a class. Missing (i.e.
nonparticipation or inadequate participation in class activities on
the course Lesson board) for 3 classes or more without instructor
permission will result in students being withdrawn from the class.
Homework turned in late will not be graded. Homework written into
the drop boxes of the ANGEL Lesson Board, rather than attached as
Word or rich-text format documents, will not be graded. Homework turned in without the
student's name, date and a description of which homework assignment
the work is responding to will not be graded.
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Successfully
complete a comprehensive examination.
The comprehensive exam will
be administered at 10 weeks and will cover the material covered
over weeks 1-10. The exam will be administered via the course
lesson board. NOTE:
In instances (such as in this distance learning course) where
course assessment involves a take home exam, the exam is posted under the
instructor section of the lesson board and is additionally emailed to
the students via ANGEL email. Each student will be given a
specified period of time to complete the exam and return it to the
instructor via ANGEL email. Exams returned later than the specified
deadline will not be graded and the student will receive a grade of 0%
for such exams.
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Complete
all homework in a timely and thorough fashion and weekly post study
question / homework answers to the lesson board.
What the course considers to be
"homework" are the discussion questions that occur between
sessions 1-10. All homework must be completed weekly and
must include
APA
source documentation. Additionally,
each week's homework must include the homework question followed
immediately with the student's response and all papers must include
the students name, the course name, the assignment number and the
date. Work failing to fully meet these criteria will receive no
credit. Likewise work turned in late will receive no credit.
Homework
submitted later than 5:00 p.m. on the final date of the class session
will will be considered late homework and will not be credited toward
class attendance and participation.
The
dates for each class session can be found in the course schedule
located on the course home page. Distance learning course are
considered to operate over a seven day week period.
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Complete a four
- part applied final exam over sessions 11-14.
An "Applied" examination is typically a narrative exam
that assesses the student's capacity to conceptually understand
policy issues and related "knowledge" and to be able to apply
these concepts and ideas in the analysis of a policy problem or
issue. The applied exam for this course focuses upon
the controversial positions that have been staked out in regard
to global warming. To that end, each portion of the
applied exam involves students providing analytical answers
to one or two questions relating to contrasting positions
on climate change and global warming. Each portion of this exam
should be approached as individual narratives consisting of a minimum of 1200
and a maximum of 2000 words. Each narrative must include APA citations and
reference used appropriately, must have a title page with the
assignment description (e.g. Applied Exam Part 1,
Applied Exam Part 2, etc.) All portions of the
applied exam must include
the name of the student and the date. Points will be deducted
for the omission of any of the above. All papers must be double
spaced and attached to the appropriate drop box. Narratives that
fail to meet the minimum length requirement will receive point
deductions, as will papers that exceed 2,200 words. Papers
turned in late, posted in the wrong drop box, or placed under
one of the Lesson Board session folders rather than in the
appropriate session drop box will not be
graded.
APA
Documentation Method:
I
strongly encourage every student to take the time to complete the
following online
APA Citation and Reference Tutorial offered by Harvard University.
One of the objectives of this class is that you learn how to use the
APA documentation style. You can learn everything you need to know
about how to use this method by studying the material at the following
sites. Please understand that any of your discussion questions or your
student presentation papers that are lacking in complete APA styled
documentation will be returned to you and will not be graded until
they are in order.
NOTE:
Students will be given
credit for turning in their homework completely and on time. Students
will be responsible for assuring that all study questions are
appropriately cited and referenced using APA style.
Failure to comply with these citation and reference standards will
result in grade point reductions.
Students are also responsible for assuring that all of their
responses are accurate, since the course exams will be largely based upon
these study questions. The instructor will provide either one
completely graded set of questions for students to refer to or will
provide the answers to the discussion questions on a weekly basis.
These will be posted under the instructor section of the course's
Lesson board. Students will be responsible for not only turning in their work
on a weekly basis, but reviewing their work against the instructor's
feedback for the questions.
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