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Workplace E-mails Convey Maturity

Do your workplace e-mails make you sound flighty or grounded? David Jensen from the university’s career center stated, “A well-written e-mail shows maturity. You’re far more likely to be promoted.” He offers the following advice.

Decorative Elements
Avoid smiley faces, pink italic font, and codes such as lol for laughing out loud. Save your warmth and creativity for face-to-face interactions. Stick to Arial, 10- or 12-point black font.

Exclamation Points
Use these sparingly – no more than one per message. Periods convey more maturity and emotional control, which translates into credibility.

All Capital Letters
Writing in all capital letters implies shouting. Never shout in your e-mails.

Grammar
Regardless of how your supervisor writes, use complete sentences and correct capitalization. Fix the subject line if it does not convey the subject.

Subject Title
Choose a subject title that summarizes the document. Consider how you would save the document if it were a Word file. David recalled an instance in which a recipient deleted someone’s message because the subject line looked like spam.

Recipients
Many people regret writing something in an e-mail that is later forwarded to larger audiences. Fran Bernhards, vice president and account supervisor for Ketchum, stated, “Don’t write anything in an e-mail that you would be embarrassed about.” Beware of the “reply all” button – use it sparingly.

Spelling
Spelling errors reflect your attention to detail. Bernhards stated, “We tend to be poor proofers of e-mails. Careful proofing of all business correspondence – including e-mails – is essential.” Many offices use Outlook, which allows you to automatically configure your e-mail account to conduct a spell-check when you send e-mails. This allows you to fix errors before messages are sent. Spell check does not catch everything. Slowly reading your document or reading it aloud can help you catch other errors.

Forwards
You can forward news articles that lend insight into your industry’s latest trends, but save the heart-warming chain letters for non-coworkers who send them to you.

Organization
Include at least one sentence to introduce the subject. Convey the reasons behind the positions you take. Write one to two sentences to conclude. Think of an e-mail as a memo.

Signature
Format your e-mail so every message ends with your name, position, organization, address and phone number.

Point-Counterpoint: File-Sharing

Can you justify illegal file-sharing? Do you think it is acceptable?
Consider rebuttals to the justifications for illegal file-sharing.

Justification	Rebuttal
Illegally downloading a song is as innocent as tape recording it from the radio.	Radio stations pay artists for the right to play their songs, which makes copying from the radio legal. Payments are usually made through associations, such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The association gives about 84 cents of every dollar to artists, the best distribution ratio for artists in the United States. The industry does not require payment for the rights to songs on the radio because it considers the songs to be free advertising that does not undermine its business.
Sharing a song is like the library sharing a book.	The difference between sharing a song and sharing a book is that online sharing involves producing a new copy of the work. Libraries can loan books and you can loan the original hard copies of CDs.
I should be able to share music with my friends.	As long as you purchased the music, you can let others borrow the original hard copy of it. Creating an additional copy by transmitting it electronically or burning a copy is not your right. You should feel as comfortable using stolen music as you would a stolen bike.
I am only hurting wealthy companies by using stolen music – artists get about a dime of every dollar spent.	Wealth is not ideally distributed given the low economic incentives to attract the best teachers to the schools that need them most. The gap between high and low salaries in this country is widening. You do not have the right to steal or commit tax fraud because you disagree with the distribution of resources. If the owner offends you so much, boycott its goods. For a boycott to work, you do not steal the goods that you are boycotting. Stealing evokes a response of enforcement, but abandoning products for political reasons can make a difference, as the Dixie Chicks experienced when country music fans pressured radio stations to pull their music because of anti-war statements. If this issue is important to you rather than being a cop-out to ease your guilt, you can organize demonstrations. Bad press pressures industries to change. Among the great aspects of this country is your ability to legally and effectively protest.
I buy more CDs because of file-sharing. My actions help the industry and economy.	There is a legal means to try out music to see if it is worth buying. Web sites such as BuyMusic.com offer free 15-20 second clips. You can play the most popular songs at MTV.com. You can legally borrow your friends’ music if they purchased it. Studies of the effect of illegal file-sharing on sales conflict because it is difficult to track, partly because other forces have decreased CD sales. The industry and some scholars have criticized the methodology of the Harvard and University of North Carolina study that claimed minimal to no influence on CD sales. They cited other studies that suggest a negative impact. The outcome of this debate should not guide your decision on breaking the law. Legally sample the music you want to try. If you want rights to the entire song, you can pay the price of a bottle of water for it.
I should not have to buy a whole CD for one song.	Buy the song online for about a dollar, or, if there is a CD single, purchase it.
I will not get caught.	Even if you do not get caught, stealing to give yourself a luxury item is indefensible. You have to live with yourself. You are breaking the law.
The university should not consider paying for or subsidizing students’ file-sharing because not everyone will use the service.	Not everyone uses the workout facilities, but we should still have them. Not everyone goes to the Hoff Theater for movies, but our fees subsidize discounts. People without children pay property taxes that help schools. People with more money than you pay a larger share of your government services than you do. There is not a dollar for dollar distribution of services. If you want to change that, do so through legal means. If enough students want their fees dedicated to a music service, the university should consider it. You can tell the student committee what you think by e-mailing p2p-feedback@umd.edu.