LET'S COMMUNICATE 
Agriculture Communication Newsletter 
May 2004, No. 101

CONTENTS

���� WRITE THE RIGHT WORD
���� NETIQUETTE REMINDERS
���� EXTENSION MARKETING UPDATE
���� MAIL ROOM CHANGES
���� QUOTE OF THE MONTH: READ ALOUD TO EDIT

WRITE THE RIGHT WORD

Here are a few errors I've seen or that have been shared with me recently:
* The mission of the advisory committee is to promote, advise, and assist the county Extension Service to enhance lives and communities.
The committee might be able to promote the Extension Service, but they must advise and assist the staff. This sentence probably needs to be rethought regarding verb and object agreement.
* Here are more exercises from the manager's seminar I attended.
Yes, somebody caught this error in the last Let's Communicate. Obviously, more than one manager attended the seminar so the sentence should have referred to the managers' seminar.� 

NETIQUETTE REMINDERS

* Think about your target audience before you send to an e-mail list. Do you really want to send to all-ag or all-ext? Those lists include faculty, administrators, educators, technicians, support staff and others across the state. Do they all need to know about a campus seminar? A 4-H literature question? A seed variety request? See http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/directory/emailist.htm  for e-mail lists to reach exactly who you want to reach.
* Even if you have a target audience determined, is your message important enough for an e-mail? Some experts say if you wouldn't be willing to invest in making copies to deliver or paying postage, you probably shouldn't send the e-mail either.
* If you're forwarding an e-mail, be sure to delete the names and e- mail addresses of people who have previously received the message. Not only do your recipients not want to wade through that information, you need to respect the privacy of the people listed.
* Reply only to the sender rather than all recipients unless you really need to communicate something to the others.
* Always include a short description in the subject line, and make it as specific as possible. Change the subject if you're replying but your message is about a topic other than that person's original content.

Kaitlin Sherwood, author of Overcome Email Overload, says there are six basic rules for avoiding unnecessary chatter in your inbox.
* Sign off your messages with "No reply needed" to avoid annoying "Great!" and "Wow!" responses.
* When making a request, finish with "Thanks in advance" to prevent the "Thanks/You're welcome" loop.
* When completing a response to a request, end with a conclusive statement like, "Hope this helped."
* Use "FYI" in the subject line to specify that the message is solely informative.
* Don't write statements phrased as questions, like "Peter and Laura did a great job, didn't they?"
* When you receive a CC message and must reply, send your response only to the sender instead of to everybody.

EXTENSION MARKETING UPDATE

NDSU Extension Service faculty and staff, please review the marketing standards at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/Extensionstandards.htm  for letterhead, envelope, business card and enclosure guidelines. Envelopes following this standard are for business use only so don't have to have "official business" printed as CSREES stated. Contact Agnes Vernon at avernon@ndsuext.nodak.edu  with orders.

MAIL ROOM CHANGES

Shirley Hanson retired from the Distribution Center at the end of April. Since Fall 1989, Shirley sorted, counted, lifted, hauled, processed and metered publications and mail. We greatly appreciate Shirley's years of behind-the-scenes service that were too often taken for granted. But we welcome Gary Johnson, who is now helping in Distribution on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: READ ALOUD TO EDIT

When you're done writing, edit ruthlessly. Write to length. Don't make the editor cut. Read your stories aloud. If you trip over your words, so will your reader. Source: Amy Eisman, USA Weekend