Advantages. E-mail shares the advantage with the telephone and fax that it is quick, in that it is possible to get an almost immediate answer, but it is much cheaper than long-distance telephoning. An e-mail message can be delivered almost anywhere in the world in just a few minutes, if not seconds, and if the other person is at their computer, you can get a reply very quickly.
Plain text is the most common form of e-mail, but e-mail shares with faxes the ability to transmit pictures, computer software, sounds, videos and special files made by word processors or other computer software. It is also possible to send sounds and even video via e-mail. (However, the other person has to have the programs necessary to read these files.)
Large amounts of information can easily be sent by e-mail. You can, for example, send an entire academic paper--or even an entire book, if you want to. We have sent as many as 200 pages without any problems. If the file is very big, you can divide it up into several messages.
It is very easy to send and receive e-mail. You just type in the e-mail address, instead of addressing an envelope, putting postage stamp on it, and dropping it into a mail box.
It is also easy to send the message to several people at once or to send a copy to one or more people at the same time.
It is easy to edit a message received by e-mail and forward it or send a reply to the sender.
Unlike postcards or faxes, e-mail cannot normally be accidentally seen or read by someone else. (However, you cannot assume that e-mail is completely secure.)
If you have access to your e-mail server (computer) from another computer, you can read and send e-mail from your own account wherever you are in the world. It is not difficult to get access to the Internet, and if you can, you can use your own computer.
Disadvantages. While in theory, you can get a reply to an e-mail message very quickly, this might not always happen in practice. Some people do not check their e-mail messages regularly, for example. If you do not receive an answer quickly, you will not know why. The message may not have been delivered, the other person may not have checked their e-mail, they may have decided not to answer, or it may take some time to get the information you want.
Not everyone has e-mail, so for some communication, you will still need to use the telephone, fax, or regular mail. While people who work for universities, libraries, large companies, etc., have free e-mail, and e-mail for individuals is more and more widely available. However, there are still many people who don't have it.
The e-mail message itself is divided into two parts, the header and the body. The header has information about the route by which the e-mail was delivered (which is not usually useful to you), and it also tells you who sent the message (their e-mail address and possibly their name), who the message is to (it may have been sent to other people in addition to you), when the message was sent, and what the subject of the message is. The body of the e-mail message is the actual message.
Sending messages. To send messages, there will be a command telling the computer that you want to send a message, and then you type in the e-mail address. An e-mail address consists of a user name (the identifier used to specify a particular person, often using all or part of their real name), an @ mark, and the name of the computer where their e-mail goes. For example, ttanaka@mail.doshisha.ac.jp is an e-mail address. This is the address for a person named T. Tanaka at Doshisha University. "Ac" indicates that it is an academic institution, and "jp" indicates that it is in Japan. In some cases, you can type just part of the address, and the computer program supplies the full address. Depending on the e-mail program, you may be able to send the message to more than one person at once, either by typing each address individually or by typing an identifier which includes several addresses that you have specified. If you are sending an e-mail message in reply to a message you have received, there will be a command that allows you to reply to that message, automatically sending your message to the address that the original message came from. Also, you can forward a message that you have received to a third party.
There will also be a place to type the subject(s) of your message. The subject line should be short but descriptive, that is, it should be easy for the reader to understand what the message is about. Many people get a large number of e-mail messages each day, and it is important for them to be able to determine quickly what each message is about.
Writing messages. When writing e-mail, there are a few things that you should keep in mind.
1. Be clear and concise. That is, say what you have to say briefly, but make sure your meaning is clear. If your e-mail is purely social, it may be OK to write long, wordy messages, but for any business purpose or if you do not know the other person well, you should try to be brief but clear. The first sentence or two should include the main point of the message, with further explanation following it.
2. Make your references clear. If you are responding to a message, it might be useful to quote part of the original message so that the meaning of your answer is clear. However, do not quote long, unnecessary sections of the original message. Only quote enough to be sure that your meaning is clear.
3. Do not send anything by e-mail that you would not like to have become public knowledge. E-mail is not secure, so you cannot use e-mail for confidential information that must be protected. For example, if you need to send your credit card information to order merchandise, you should send it through regular mail rather than through e-mail.
4. Limit the length of your lines to 60 characters. Some programs to read e-mail cannot read lines longer than that, so it may be easier for the other person if you keep your lines short.
5. Be polite. While most people who use e-mail are reasonably polite, some people who use the Internet seem to think that they do not have to use the normal politeness that they would use in other communication.
6. Try to make your message error free. You should check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. You should also reread your message to see if what you wrote was what you really meant. Do not send the message immediately after you finish writing, but be sure the check whether your message is all right.
In some computer programs, you can have a "signature" automatically added to the end of the message. If not, you type your signature each time or copy it from another file. At minimum, you should include your name and e-mail address in your signature. Some people also include the name of their company or institution, their snail mail address, their phone and fax numbers, etc. However, you should not make your signature file too long, not more than about four to six lines.
Since e-mail is a relatively new medium, guidelines for writing messages are not well developed. In general, however, e-mail is a less formal medium than letter writing, and formal messages are still sent by snail mail.
Some e-mail programs automatically keep a record of the messages that you have sent. For very important information, though, it is a good idea to print out the messages and keep them on file.
For general knowledge about e-mail, please read the e-mail section of "Internet".
If you find any problems, let me know.