Making Clear and Effective Online Communications

Communication can be ambiguous or confusing in the absence of face-to-face presence. In online communication, it is very important that you write messages clearly and effectively. The following are some of the email message design principles that you may consider:

• Make the message subject line descriptive of the content.
• Put a certain designator in the message subject line so you can categorize student replies to the message easily.
• Ask students to put certain designators in the subject lines of their messages to you.
• Make your file names descriptive and easy to keep track of and organize.
• Use formatting options (e.g., font styles, colors, or shades, paragraph styles, indentation, etc.) to make the message easy to read or highlight important information.
• Provide your contact information at the end of each message.
• Be sure you know whether your message links to content residing on a server, or contains actual content. Be sure your message format indicates that information clearly.