Email! It’s paperless communication at the speed of light. Unfortunately, some of us are offending recipients at the speed of light as well, unaware that there is etiquette in cyberspace!

Because of the ease of use, most of us are email lazy. We’ve said adios to proper grammar and howdy to cryptic message writing. From abbreviations to emoticons, everyone has their own little email language. Unfortunately, not everyone understands email etiquette, which makes many an email confusing, and even worse, insulting.

We’ve put together an “email manners” checklist to help you translate this cyber-speak, and to encourage web-civility.

If you’ve been screaming at Grandma and speaking gibberish with Aunt Edna, the following tips and tricks may help make your communications a bit friendlier.

• Never use ALL CAPS. Why? Typing in all capital letters is like shouting in your recipient’s face. “WHY HAVEN’T YOU WRITTEN TO ME?” vs. “Why haven’t you written to me?” communicates a very angry tone and is likely to offend your reader. Remember to check your caps lock button before writing your message. If you receive a message in all caps, it could be a mistake —or, it could be that SOMEONE IS REALLY MAD AT YOU!
  
  
• Use abbreviations with care. Everybody’s using them: BTW, FWIW, the list goes on. Many of us don’t even have a clue as to what these cyber-abbreviations mean. If you are using them, try to stick to common shortcuts such as BTW (by the way) and FWIW (for what it’s worth). If not, you’re likely to have a very confused friend sitting at home trying to decipher TNSTAAFL. The tent’s aaafull? Come on now, you couldn’t figure out it means “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”?
  
  
• Understanding emoticons. They’re cute, they’re creative. Just flip your head to the left and you’ll discover emoticons ranging from a wink to a scream. Better known as “smilies,” these symbols are meant to add emotion to email. Emoticons (emotion + icon) can transform “your cooking is terrible” into “just kidding, I love your lasagna” just by inserting a :) (smile) or ;) (wink) at the end of the phrase.
  
  

		Cyber Etiquette Match Game And for those of us that just don't get those weird little smilies, this game is sure to help. Try to match the following cyber-abbreviation or emoticon with the correct expression. Good luck cyber-speakers! Shortcuts a ____ LOL    b ____ ROTFL    c ____ TTFN    d ____ TTYL    e ____ IMHO (1) Rolling on the floor laughing    (2) Talk to you later    (3) In my humble opinion    (4) Ta ta for now    (5) Laugh out loud Emoticons f ____ :)    g ____ ;)   h ____ :(    i ____ ;/    j ____ :@ (6) perplexed    (7) smiley face    (8) scream    (9) wink (light sarcasm)    (10) frown Correct answers: Shortcuts: a = 5, b = 1, c = 4, d = 2, e = 3 Emoticons: f = 7, g = 9, h = 10, i = 6, j = 8

Published: gwi.netletter, Winter 2002