Progress Reports

Weekly e-mail progress reports sent to your advisor and to the RUSP coordinators are essential. Whether or not you made progress during the week, keeping track of your thoughts, actions, failures and successes indicates you are on top of your research.

E-Mail Etiquette

Below are some guidelines about sending e-mail. E-mail is not the same as a phone call or a letter, and has its own stylistic conventions.
  1. Remember that there really is no such thing as a private email messages, and that the lifespan of an email message may be eternal.
  2. Don't write extensively in UPPER CASE.
  3. Make your message brief, if you want the recipient to read it.
  4. Don't include attachments unless necessary; instead, post your information to a website and email the address (url).
  5. If attachments are necessary, shrink them as much as possible, especially images.
  6. When sending attachments, think through your file name. Names like "My paper.doc" and "Resume.doc" are not helpful when sent to others, especially others who receive similar attachments from many others.
  7. Check the date and time on your computer's clock, since that timestamps your message. Many email systems sort messages by date, so if your clock is set to the year 1970, that may cause your message to be buried, perhaps never to be noticed.
  8. Do not forward chain letters or hoaxes concerning viruses.
  9. Use a brief signature line for people who need your contact information.
  10. If your mail program offers the option, avoid using html code. Not all your recipients' mail programs will be able to handle it.
  11. Consider deleting portions or all of the message(s) to which you reply, i.e. deleting the thread, when appropriate. If you're quoting somebody's message in your reply, try to quote only the relevant portions of the message and not the whole thing. It's not always necessary to resend an entire message, e.g., just to indicate that you received the message or to give an okay, for example. The > and >> symbols will distinguish what you write from what you're responding to. In general, clean up email messages before forwarding them.
  12. Careful when responding to listservs, if you intend to respond to just one person.
  13. Think carefully about how you use the cc: and bcc: fields.
  14. Use a meaningful subject line for your message.
  15. Don't overuse the "Urgent" or "Highest Priority" icons available on some email programs.
  16. Avoid requesting return receipts that are available in some email programs.
  17. Don't even think about flaming (sending angry or malicious emails).
  18. Run your email's spell checker before hitting "Send".

Useful websites:
www.emailreplies.com
www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm

August 19, 2008