E-mail Guidelines

• Use black type – not blue, purple, etc. On official university business internally or externally, black type only.
• The font should be Arial or Times Roman. These are the two most generally accepted fonts that should be used in e-mails for all university business.
• All e-mails for university business should have the “spell check” activated for every e-mail sent or replied to. Being accurate with each message is critical to the university’s credibility, quality academic standards. Years of good work can be discredited by sloppy spelling on an e-mail communication. 
• Please do not use ALL CAPS in e-mail communication. It looks like you are screaming at the recipient. And, ALL CAPS are actually more difficult for the eye to read and comprehend. Upper and lower case is always preferred.
• All e-mails for university business should have an e-mail tag following the signature for each e-mail.  It should be activated for every e-mail sent or replied to. Suggested e-mail tags can be found here. If a faculty or staff would like a different e-mail tag, then please contact the marketing and public relations office so that we can assist you in this important addition to your university communication.
• Please be sure to sign all e-mails. Following this, your “signature” should automatically be included on each e-mail sent and replied to in this format:
  
  

  Mary K. Doe, PhD	Name, with credentials
  The University of Southern Mississippi	Our name
  Professor, Department of History	Title, department name
  Hattiesburg, Mississippi	City, state – no mailing address items
  www.usm.edu	Web site – main page; specific link in tag
  mary.doe@usm.edu	E-mail address
  601.266.1234	Phone number

  
  Generally speaking, an individual should be able to contact you using the information in your signature. Most commonly this is e-mail (which they will usually “reply” to), phone or the Web site. Fax numbers are not usually included in e-mail tags. The length of the e-mail signature becomes an issue if all information is included here. Following the signature, you skip 1 line and add a tag following.
  Example:
  
  Mary K. Doe, PhD                             
  The University of Southern Mississippi 
  Professor, Department of History         
  Hattiesburg, Mississippi                      
  www.usm.edu                                     
  mary.doe@usm.edu                            
  601.266.1234 
  
  Southern Miss is freeing the power of the individual
  through quality academics, research, economic
  development and an excellent student experience!
  
  
• To add signatures to your e-mails, go to – Tools and then Options. For further assistance, contact the Help Desk at 4357.

For example Email Tags click here.