School of Art, Media and Education

eTeam

Netiquettes
Tips for effective online communications

What is Netiquettes?: Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly online.

• The use of CAPITALS is the equivalent of shouting online

• Remember the human (You cant see facial expressions, gestures,
and tone of voice; easy to misinterpret your correspondent's
meaning; Its less personal; remember there are real people out
there!, would I say this to the person's face?; written words can be
saved)
• Keep the same standards of behaviour online that you follow in
real life (be ethical and breaking the law is bad Netiquette)
• Respect other people's time and bandwidth
• Help keep flame wars under control ("Flaming" is what people do
when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any
emotion, can be good for debate, but keep under control!)
• Be forgiving of other people's mistakes. Remember you were a
newbie once. Point out mistakes politely. Give people the benefit of
the doubt
• Keep messages short and be brief and clear
• Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation
• Do not attach unnecessary files
• Take care with abbreviations and emoticons
• Do not forward chain letters
• Do not use email to discuss confidential information
• Use a meaningful subject
• Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT
• Avoid long sentences
• Keep your language gender neutral
• Read the email before you send it

mar2 01/08