Replying to email
"Or don't you like to write letters. I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something." (Ernest Hemingway)
So, you've sent out an email and now someone has emailed you back.
Now what?
If the email doesn't require a reply, or you simply don't want to reply, then don't!. File the email away someplace (it pays to keep copies of emails - you might need them some day) and then forget about it.
On the other hand, if you do want to reply, here's how you go about it...
- Open the email that you want to reply to within your email program and select "Reply-To" or similar.
- You should, then, see a display similar to the one you saw when you wrote a new email except that, this time, your correspondant's email address will already be entered.
- You'll also see that the Subject Line has been filled in for you (possibly with an additional "Re:") and the contents of the received email will be included with a '>' before each line (sometimes called quoted text - see the note below).
- You can now intersperse your comments with your correspondant's quoted text in a way that mimics normal converation. However, you don't have to keep all, or any, of this quoted text if you feel it is unnecessary. In fact, it's considered good netiquette (ie polite) to remove all but the bits that you are actually replying to. This keeps the email as short as possible and, therefore, as cheap as possible to download.
- If you do decide to remove pieces of quoted text. it's also considered polite to replace them with the word <snip> or [..] to indicate that you've removed something.
- Once you have completed your reply, you can sign the email with your name and send it in the usual fashion.
Note:
The character '>' is added to indicate what was said previously by your correspondant.
Double '>>' indicates what was said in your last email to them, and so on.
The '>' characters are included to help you keep track on ongoing conversations - who said what and when. This where email has obvious advantages over paper letters in that it allows you to communicate in an almost conversational fashion.