Created: Sat Dec 16 00:00:00 MET 1995 Last update: Thu Oct 31 15:39:48 CET 1996 Text size: About 20K. (The text version of this guide may have been updated again - ask me!) Editing EMail - A Guide with Examples Email has become a popular form of conversation. It will not replace paper mail (just like CDs won't replace books) but it certainly is a media with its own kind of form. Just as paper mail (aka snail mail) and answering machines it has pros and cons - and you should be aware of them. You can make Email look like paper mail - but that does not make it the same. If you basically want to send a picture with your own handwriting and coffee stains etc then you should get a pece of paper and use snail mail. Sure, you could write a mail, scan it in and send it in encoded form via email - but that requires a scanner, additional software and most of all - knowledge. If you don't have any of these then you should ask someone to send it as a FAX for you. The appearace of paper mail usually is fixed and can also have some color to it. But, mind you, the appearace of email depends on the kind of program used to show it. Emails are usually replied with a mail program which allows to easily include the previous text in a quoted form - and the quoted text can be used to give a direct reference to your additional text. Quoting is a _big advantage_ of email replies - use it! _________________________________________________________________ The Advantage of Quoting Why use quoting in replies? Simple - you can remind your addressee of what he wrote - and you can directly give an answer to the posed question or comment on a discussed subject. This makes an email more like a phone call where you usually answer directly to a question. It makes email more lively and easier to read: Example: > You said you wrote a guide on email style - where is it? The address of the page is http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/mail/editing.mails.html Note that every line of the quoted text is prefixed with "> " (two characters - an angle followed by a space) and that there is an empty line following the quoted text. Thus you get seperate paragraphs - one paragraph of quoted text and one paragraph of reply. This is helpful as most editors can easily operate on a paragraph, such as reformatting the text with a different maximum of line length (VIM: Qp) or simply delete it (VIM: dp). However, people do not seem to know how to deal with it. Many mails are hard to read as they suffer from basic errors: _________________________________________________________________ Basic Errors in Email Replies Text in capital letters, too long lines, empty lines in sentences, no reference to previous mail, bad or even no quoting in replies, full headers in forwarded mails, oversized signatures, and full quote after signature. Furthermore, some mailers mangle the mail as well: * "Re^n:" and "Re(n):" * Encoded ASCII text * Multipart text with empty parts * Forwarded mails without weeded headers * Non-standard quoting _________________________________________________________________ Thesis and antithesis WRITING IN _CAPITAL LETTERS ONLY_ COMPRESSES BETTER. True - and best compression takes zero space - therefore I store these letters in /dev/null... _Long lines_ are not a problems because you have a computer which can easily reformat these lines to fit your screen width. Unfortunately you do not always have access to required programs in every environment - especially then when you need a printed copy of the mail. _Empty lines in sentences_ are just another kind of whitespace which can easily be removed. Again, this does not apply for printed mails. Generally removing empty lines then also takes away the empty lines between paragraphs which are required to give the text basic structure. _Reference to previous mails_ are not required as there are mail programs which can easily find text in previous mail. Not everyone uses sophisticated mail programs which can retrieve previous mail according to text. And even a program needs some infomation about previous mail - the best info is the message id which should *always* be included in a reply with the "In-Reply-To:" line in the header. Quoting parts of the related text of the previous mail is even better as you need not scan the previous mail for related text. It does not matter how and what you quote. It does not matter how and what you say. A forwarded mail should always be included with full header. Are you forwarding the mail because of its content of because you want to show others header lines you do not understand? Or do you want to report a mail transport problem? B1g s1gnatur3s R kewl!!1! So is the "delete" command of my mailer. Quoting text should always be appended in full and after the signature. Do you write PS text a lot, too? Do you also send back a xerox copy of all your letters? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Examples Let me explains these things in detail giving a few examples: _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Capital Letters Only Here is a sample letter from someone using only capital letters: From: JOEDOE@VAX.LUSER.COM To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: WHADDAYA MEAN - LOWER CASE? I AM NOT ABLE TO WRITE IN LOWERCASE LETTERS AS I COULD NOT FIND THE LOWERCASE KEY ON THIS MACHINE YET. JOEDOE Well, text in all capital letters is hard to read - especially if you read it as if the person is shouting at you. _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Lines longer than 80 characters Long lines usually mean that they are longer than 80 characters (not counting tabs). Most terminals can hold 80 characters - but no more. Therefore they have to be wrapped at the right edge (after column 80) producing very bad spacing on the screen: From: bigscreen@monitorland.com To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: My screen is wider than your screen Why should I restrict myself to 80 columns when there is enough space o n my monitor to show all? Really, I cannot understand what you are complaining about - after all the prices for 21" monitors have fallen so much now that you can afford one for your compu ter at home and one for your laptop. Our company makes great monitors and you can buy them from us for only a few thousand dollars. Mr. BigScreen It's easy to see that such a text looks better wrapped to 80 columns: From: bigscreen@monitors.com To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: Re: My screen is wider than your screen > I wonder what you'll say when you have to use an 80 column terminal. Well, since the last crash at Wall Street I have had to sell both my 21" monitors and my laptop. I am now using the PC of a friend who just has a 9" display and now I can see only 80 columns at my terminal. It has been a sad experience but now I appreciate getting mails that are wrapped such that I can read them without reformmating them. Mr. BigScreen on 80 column terminal Gee, that's better, isn't it? _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Empty Lines in Sentences Empty lines seperate paragraphs - not sentences! It's so simple - and yet so hard to teach: From: secretary@newbie.com To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: How do I edit text? Dear Mr Guckes Thank you for you letter explaining how to use an editor program to prepare text for sending as E-Mail via the Internet. We would like to ask you blah blah blah and would like to hear from you again soon. Yours sincerely Ms Emily Newbie Secretary at Newbie Inc This is a typical letter from people who think everyone is using Windows and that windows are usually one meter wide and four feet high. Well, those empty lines don't get lost and actually add up (surprise!). Moreover, you cannot see where a paragraph ends as every non-empty line is its own paragraph because it is followed by an empty line. Thanks God there are some people out there you seem to know what they are doing. From: boss@newbie.com To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: Editing text with VIM Hi! Thank you for hint on VIM - it's a great editor! I read the helpfile with ":help Q" and found that "Qp" reformats the current paragraph. It's amazing that the quotation prefix is preserved. It's real fast and I like it a lot. However, I could not find the other text you told me about. Can you send me a copy? Well, my secretary still has a lot to learn. It took me half a year to train her to make coffee. Next year she'll probably take a course or two at writing letters on *real* paper... Guy LeBig (Boss) Well, that's a lot better. However, there is no reference to my mail nor is anything quoted, so I don't know which text I referred him to. This I cannot send him the desired text without digging up a copy of my mail or asking him again. And if neither he nor I have a copy of it then we both won't know what we were talking about. Therefore - quoting pays! _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Full Quote Although quoting is good some people just overdo it by quoting everything. Quite often I get mails in which my previous mail is fully quoted but not edited. This both wastes bandwidth *and* time as I have to reread the full text just to find out what it was all about. Furthermore, I makes my mail log a lot bigger. Instead, what you want is a few keywords or just the URL to some info at the start: [chain emails and spams] > why don't you just delete those mails and be done with it? simple - I feel I can save the world from spams and I must report those offenders to every police stattion on the planet. Anti-Spam Well, here the topic is depicted with a few words at the beginning - good. My text has been trimmed down to just quote my question thus saving on bacndwith and mail log size. Very well! But even though this person's efforts are for a good cause I'd suggest decaf coffee and the use of a (mail) filter. _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Full Quote with Unrelated Response The "full quote": Quoting Sven Guckes: > blah blah blah > blah blah blah > blah blah blah > blah blah blah > > more blah blah blah > more blah blah blah > more blah blah blah I don't get it. Please explain in more detail! JoeDoe -- newbie@clueless.com ARGH! Not even does the person say what he does not understand - but he even sends back a full quote. Now what could I do? Send back a full quote myself and ask for clarification? No, this would be against my principles at it would just waste bandwidth. So I just send a note asking to reread my mail. Usual result: The person says that he does not have the mail any more as he does not know how to save a mail. *sigh* _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Full Quote After Signature Have you ever wonderd that signatures are usually at the bottom of a paper? Well, then you might be a PINE user: Hi! What is pico? PineApple -- pineuser@clueless.com > To delete lines in pico you must > blah blah blah > > Sven Users of PINE are easily identified by writing text *before* the quoted stuff as PINE allows to configure to set the signature *before* the quoted text. Thus PINE users get put into the editor with the cursor at the start before their signature and the quoted text after the signature. PINE users usually use the editor "pico" to write their text. This editor does not have many features - moving text requires to set the start of a text block, then move to the end and mark it, then delete the marked block, move to another postition and insert the text. Moving around take a lot of time and effort as you cannot jump around easily. So a quoted text hardly ever gets broken up leaving a solid block of quoted text. I think there is no cure other than to kill that feature. Until PINE learns this I'll just delete mail from PINE users. pico weenies - I have no mercy for them. _________________________________________________________________ BAD: Fully Forwarded Mails When do you forward a mail and when do you bounce it? Do you know? Well, you should! The command "forward" is implemented differently with mailers. Some take the whole mail and include it in the body - unquoted, some quote it, and some weed out the header. Whatever mailer you have - please delete the stuff that is not interesting! Most header lines are not interesting. And you need not send the whole mail. Edit, edit edit!! Some people manage to even quote even more than the body of the mail. I get full headers, undeleted corrected lines, signatures with quotes, ascii graphics - all the stuff that usually is unnecessary: From: torfnase@sumpf.de To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: Hey, look! >From aol.com!spam Fri Nov 1 00:00:00 1996 >Return-Path: >Received: by kill.the.tele.com (/\=-/\ Smail3.1.41.5 #42.42) >id ; Fri, 1 Nov 96 00:00 MET >Received: by kill.the.tele.com (8.6.13/TeleCom) >id TRALALA1; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 00:00:00 -0000 >Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 00:00:00 -0000 >From: spam@aol.com (spam Spam SPAM) >Message-Id: >To: torfnase@tele.com (Die Torfnase) >Subject: Good Times Virus >Organization: Virus Spam Inc >Status: RO > >Thought you might like to know... > >Apparently , a new computer virus has been engineered by a user of >America Online that is unparalleled in its destructive capability. >Other, more well-known viruses such as Stoned, Airwolf, and >Michaelangelo pale in comparison to the prospects of this newest >creation by a warped mentality. > >What makes this virus so terrifying is the fact that no program needs >to be exchanged for a new computer to be infected. It can be spread >through the existing e-mail systems of the InterNet. > >Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now known as >the "Good Times" virus. [...] Torfnase -- | What should I look at here? Does this person expect any repsonse? Just what was the reason to send this, anyway? Btw, if you don't know what the "Good Times Virus" is - well, it's a hoax. Please read the "Good Times Virus FAQ": http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/~janda/gtvh_faq.html __________________________________________________________________________ BAD: Bad orthography Some people write as if they don't care whether they want to be understood. It does not matter to them how words are written as long as anyone can figure it out by taking the time to decipher them in a finite time. And some even do it on purpose because they think it makes them funny: From: ilitirit@misspelled.edu To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: spel checka? Yo, there!!1! I dunt car3e if haf spelled anyth2n wrong cuz U w1ll underastnd redin ma repliez carefull enuf. 1 dont hafza t1me to check ma mails with a spel checa becoz I must send more each dsay tahn 1 recief! dont have a COW maaaaaaaaaaaan B1ff I wonder if this persons know what spell checkers have been invented for. Is it worth the time to argue with these people? Well, if such a mail will be rejected by /dev/null because it is too good to dump then I will take the time to reply to it. __________________________________________________________________________ BAD: MIME and Enriched Text Multimedia is in. It's a buzz word that makes PR people drool and salesman wet their pants. However, multimedia mails are often misunderstood to be "cool". The purpose of MIME mails are to structure included information - not to send every little text in multipart form: From: multiman@multimedia.com To: guckes@math.fu-berlin.de Subject: __________________________________________________________________________ BAD: Big Signatures An extensive explanation is on the "Signature and Alt.Fan.Warlord FAQ": http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/afw/ __________________________________________________________________________ Further Reading http://www.clari.net/brad/emily.html "Emily Postnews, foremost authority on proper net behaviour, gives her advice on how to act on the net." A classical text on Email etiquette. Translated versions available in French, German, Italian, and Dutch. Author: Brad Templeton. http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm "E-Mail Etiquette". Hints about style, abbreviations, smilies, salutations, signatures, threads, quoting the relevant, privacy, flames, addressing with other nets, and spams. http://www.wp.com/fredfish/Netiq.html "Business Netiquette International". Some rules to follow with business email. Author: Frederick Pearce __________________________________________________________________________ NOTE If I have sent you the URL to this page for reading then you can expect that my mail filter will filter your mails out - unless you put the number 670406 in the Subject line with your next reply... __________________________________________________________________________ My plea: "Edit your reply!" Thanks! Sven Send feedback on this page to Sven Guckes guckes@math.fu-berlin.de