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"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
George Bernard Shaw
- Stay focused on the task at hand.
- Start sentences with "I" rather than "you" to avoid sounding confrontational.
- Avoid the words "never" and "always."
- Practice active listening.
- Allow everyone to speak without rushing them.
- Be calm, high emotions degrade communication.
- Stay positive and be encouraging.
- Voice your feelings and opinions.
- Pay attention to your non-verbal communications.
- Make eye contact.
While pursuing your degree, you'll be communicating in person and by electronic communication. Whether it is via email, chat or text messaging, it is important to effectively communicate with others. A list of general guidelines for Netiquette follows.
For more specific information when communicating online on Desire2Learn, select the "Discussion Board" tab.
For more information:
Core Rules of Netiquette
By Seth Ross
- Behave online as you would in real life.
- Don't expect instant response.
- Be conservative in sending emails. Quality trumps quantity.
- UPPER CASE looks as though you are shouting, and is considered rude.
- uSiNg iNcOrReCt cApItAlIzAtIon makes everything incredibly hard to read.
- Slang and short-hand should not be used (such as the terms "lol" and "gr8").
- Make sure the information you are sharing is correct.
- Be encouraging and positive.
- Always proof-read and spell-check.
- Share your knowledge.
- Respect other people's privacy.
- Be kind and polite about other's mistakes.
- Do not forward chain letters and/or spam emails.
- Be an active participant.
Communicating via Desire2Lean (a.k.a. D2L) is a part of almost every class offered at Stout. Thus, it is important to know how to properly and effectively communicate with your classmates, and professors. While this section was written with Desire2Learn in mind, many of these principals can be directly applied to other forms of electronic communication such as email.
Select from the topics below to reveal more information.
- Be considerate of other students' time; most will not have time to look at and respond to posts at the last moment.
- Post on discussion boards a day or two prior to deadlines, at least, to give classmates time to respond.
- Always add a new thought in your replies.
- Summarize your point.
- For more information.
- Avoid the "me too" or "I agree" posts. Example [PDF]
- Write in normal sentence/paragraph form.
- Font color should be black.
- UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING and is considered rude.
- uSiNg iNcoRrEcT cApItAlIzAtIoN makes everything incredibly hard to read.
- No SMS (short message service) language (e.g. LOL, gr8, ttyl, btw) or replacing words with letters (e.g. u for you, b for be, r for are).
- Use attachments when the document is more than a page long.
- Use attachments when trying to get feedback or review of a multiple page draft or assignment.
- Don't copy and paste directly from a word processor (such as Microsoft Word).
- Subject heading should reflect content of message.
- For example, instead of "Hello" as the heading, "Tomorrow's Meeting" would be more informative.
- Check content of message.
- Check spelling and grammar.
- If appropriate, make sure you are using the recipient's correct title — i.e. Dr. or Professor.
- Don't say anything in an email that you wouldn't say in person.
- ALL CAPS is considered yelling, you should not use them in electronic communications. If you wish to make something stand out use bold, italics or another color for the font instead.
- uSiNg iNcoRrEcT cApItAlIzAtIoN makes everything incredibly hard to read and should not ever be used.
- Stay away from SMS language such as "lol", "gr8", "ttyl" and "btw."
- Do not replace full words with letters — i.e. "you" to "u"/"your" to "ur."
- An idea or example used to support a point made in scholarly work.
- A quotation must match the source document word for word (no paraphrasing).
- Entire quote must be enclosed in quotation mark.
- Must be attributed to the original author, include date if available.
- Link back to the source if it is online.