Subject Lines and Files Names

I am sure you can all imagine how much email and how many documents I file on a regular basis — all you need to do to is multiply the assignments you are responsible for each week by the number of students in the class, and you can easily imagine how many documents I deal with daily — and this is one of the three courses I teach.

I do not open all the emails that arrive in my box; rather, I file them according to their subject.

This is a reminder to consider the Subject lines carefully – how can you best assist your reader in terms of identifying the message without opening? How can you enable your reader to quickly file the message?  Or, alternatively, if your email requires a response, how can you alert your reader to that necessity?

While the emails you use to communicate with in this course are only worth 7% of your total grade, it is nonetheless so important that you learn the skill of professional emailing – and that you understand the differences between the purpose of sending a memo or a message. If there were a final exam for this course, I would ask that question, because it is important; memos serve a different purpose and different reader[s]  then messages.

And as you are aware, today, emailing is the main form of communications between professionals.

First, what are the differences between a pdf file and a word doc file? If you do not know the answer to this question, please go to the index in our text book and look up PDF (Portable Document Format).

All attached files must be correctly named. When I receive an attached file, I need to file that attachment. I spend endless hours, it seems, opening and changing names of student files and then re-saving and then deleting the original unnamed file, when what I need to be doing is providing feed back and evaluations.

Sometimes, I open an incorrectly named file, and the document does not have a student name, there is no date and sometimes, not even a name for the assignment. So, I have to stop and figure out who’s work is this ? –  and then name and date and title the document before re-file  – when what I want to be doing is providing feedback and evaluations.

The moral behind this post about subject lines and file names is: ALWAYS CONSIDER YOU READER’S NEEDS FIRST. Stop and think about how your document or message or memo will be used  – who is reading, who is filing, is your message or document likely to be passed on to another reader? If so, you need to consider all possible readers.

I hope these notes are helpful and that all future correspondence will have clear and complete subject lines, and all future attachments will be correctly named, and the attached document will include student name, date, and title of the document at the top. Thanks and enjoy.