Student E-Memo Style Guide

E-Memos are useful for communicating information to a large number of people in a fast and efficient way.

Because e-memo is a text-only medium, it cannot display the same kinds of formatting that you use when you prepare a paper document. Therefore, it is important to follow these few significant guidelines:

• Most campus e-mail readers are not capable of displaying fancy formatting. Therefore, you should avoid special characters such as graphic bullets, "curly quotes," or____ .

• Avoid using boldface, italics, and underlining, for they will not show up in the e-mail version of your document. If you need to use text bullets, use lowercase "o" or hyphens.

• Keep the line length short. Most e-mail readers on campus can view only fixed-width fonts with a maximum of 80 characters per line. If you use a word processor to create your text, set the font to Courier, size 10, and set the right margin to 6.75 inches.

• We have been getting some very long e-memo messages. Keep the message to less than ONE page typed. Too many bytes of data in the form of e-memo messages can tie up the university's computing resources. In addition, your readers are probably not interested in reading very long documents. You could guide your readers to a URL (uniform resource locator) for more complete information. Make sure the URL you give is correct and complete. Remember, the web is case-sensitive, so be sure to test any URL that you include in your e-memo. Most readers will appreciate a brief e-memo that references longer documents on the web, and many e-mail readers have the ability to jump to a web document simply by double-clicking on the URL.

• Don't forget to include a signature block. Don't make your readers guess who the message is from.

• Proofread your memo. Careless spelling and grammatical errors detract from the effectiveness of your message.

• Be sure to submit your e-memo request with at least seven business days notice. This will ensure that your e-memo is delivered on the date requested.

Burton Fox - Information Technology Services