# Rant: Email Etiquette

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-email-etiquette/983633>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 5, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-email-etiquette/983633 "2023-05-05T20:49:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-email-etiquette/983633/21 "2023-05-06T14:53:16Z")

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> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> if I send you an email and ask you to reach out to a third party to get some info for me, don’t forward our whole damn conversation to the third party and ask for the info

This suggests that your trusted intermediary sees this as an imposition and feels no obligation to rewrite your request. “You want _me_ to get _your_ info? OK, here’s me getting your info.”

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**Author:** ![SharltoCopley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sharltocopley/32/12309_2.png) [@SharltoCopley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharltoCopley)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-email-etiquette/983633/22 "2023-05-06T15:04:18Z")

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I share your pain and hate how people are just forwarding entire mile-long threads with just ‘FYI’ or ‘FYKA’ at the top, leaving it to me to study the thread.

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**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-email-etiquette/983633/23 "2023-05-06T20:34:30Z")

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Mmhmm. I like the ones who are scandalized that someone was “scrolling through their feed” and found something they apparently didn’t want seen…? Uh, what? You put it out there!

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**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-email-etiquette/983633/24 "2023-05-06T22:32:07Z")

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> [@Briny\_Deep](#):
>
> Make them count! Organize your thoughts and include a specific request for action. Spell things correctly – this helps greatly with searching later on. Finally, be courteous. If I only ever hear from you via email and you never ever use punctuation, salutations or signoffs, I have to assume you’re a dick.

That’s pretty much my speech to college students in my first-semester Intro to Computers class, which focused on Microsoft Office. The first class requirement was to send me a business-standard email describing what they expected out of the class.

A dozen years ago, it was a mandatory class at my community college, but over the years, various programs decided that their students either didn’t really need to know how to use computers in an office setting (Automotive) or they had too many other required classes and “had” to drop my class (Nursing). I feel sorry for those students, since in previous years students in those same programs expressed extreme gratitude to me for what they learned, and even years later talked about how useful it was. But more, I feel sorry for the people who need to work with these students after they graduate.

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