LET'S COMMUNICATE
Agriculture Communication Newsletter
April 2005, No. 112

Contents

• ITS Modem Pool Gone May 31
• E-mail Etiquette
• Write the Right Word
• Renew SAS Now
• Plan for Fall Distance Education
• Tweak of the Day

ITS Modem Pool Gone May 31

Remember, you'll no longer to be able to dial in to 231-8660 -- the ITS modem pool -- for Internet access after May 31. See the last issue of Let's Communicate and http://its.ndsu.nodak.edu/  for details.

The Ag IT Advisory Group recommended and Ag Administration agreed that Ag Communication Computer Services will provide dial- up service only to those Ag faculty and staff who need to use the ACCS local number to do their work at their official work station or those traveling to Fargo to perform work who don't have a work station at Fargo. For off-campus work, others will need to subscribe to an Internet Service Provider.

These changes will not affect the 1-800 dial-up, though Ag Com is researching less expensive options.

If you have questions, first check the ITS Web page, then contact the Ag Com Computer Services help desk at 231-9666 or accs@ndsuext.nodak.edu

E-mail Etiquette

• When forwarding a message, always delete the e-mail addresses of others who have already received the message. This excess text makes your readers search for the pertinent information. All e-mail messages should be concise and get to the point immediately.  Forwarding without editing also invades the privacy of others who received the message being forwarded. All other e-mail addresses should be edited out to protect their e-mail addresses and reduce potential spam.
• Target e-mail messages only to those who should really receive the information. Do all NDSU Agriculture faculty and staff across the state need to know about a graduate seminar? Do the family and consumer science agents know where to get seed of an oat variety?  The NDSU Agriculture e-mail lists are now described on the Ag Info Center at http://info.ndsu.nodak.edu . Use these lists to target your messages to groups of staff.
• Always include a descriptive, concise Subject line with every e- mail. Many readers -- or their filters -- delete messages without a subject. Also, avoid cute or vague descriptions such as "Important Announcement," "A Message for You" or "Read This Now."

Write the Right Word

You might say these tips are by the numbers.

The general rule is spell out numbers below 10 and use figures for 10 and above. But like any good rule, it has exceptions. Here are a few:

• Ages:  Always use figures. The boy is 5 years old. She bought a 7-month-old basset hound.
• Percents:  Always use figures. The teachers received a 4 percent raise. The price increase ranged from 5 percent to 12 percent. (Note that percent must be used after each figure.)
• Addresses:  When addresses include a house or building number, use figures for the street or avenue number. The meeting will be at Fargo City Hall, 200 3rd St. N. Mary Smith lives at 1024 24th Ave. S.W., Fargo.   Without a house or building number, spell out street and avenue numbers below 10. The new dorm will be built in the 200 block of Fifth Street North. The accident happened at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 25th Street Southwest.
• Weights:  Use figures. The boy weighed 9 pounds, 7 ounces at birth. The crop produced 25 bushels per acre.
• Temperatures:  Use figures for everything except zero. The temperature dropped to 3 degrees for three straight nights. The day's low was minus 5. Today's temperatures are expected to reach the low 50s. (Note that you don't need an apostrophe between the number and the 's.')
• Cents:  Use figures. The price increased 5 cents per bushel.
• Dimensions:  Use figures but spell out inches, feet, yards, miles, etc. The man is 5 feet 6 inches tall. The garden plot is 3 feet by 5 feet. The 9-by-9 rug just fit the living room. The farm measures 5 miles by 4 miles. But spell out numbers below 10 in distances. He drove four miles.

Renew SAS Now

For those of you who use SAS and have not done so yet, please remember to renew your licenses.

SAS is an annually renewable and non-prorated license. The contract period ended February 28, but SAS gives you a 90-day grace period. This means at the end of May your program will terminate. SAS requires a keycode to function so you must renew your license each year. The contract is for version 9.

Please send Sue Hendrickson (shendric@ndsuext.nodak.edu ) the following information for renewals:

• User's Name
• User's Department
• User's Address
• NDSU property # or serial # of the computer
• Operating System (Win98, Win2000, WinXP)

Plan for Fall Distance Education

Congratulations to instructors who are wrapping up another semester of teaching. As you look forward to next fall, have you thought about utilizing Blackboard 6 or videoconferencing to move your face-to-face classroom experience to a distance education (DE) format?

More students are asking for non-traditional instruction. Blackboard 6 has some new features that are making the online transition easier for course builders and instructors. Call or e-mail Trina Spaeth at trina.spaeth@ndsu.edu  or 231-5162 to get started in the right direction with DE. 

Tweak of the Day

This quote seems to apply to the many different kinds of writing we all do:

... readers are busy. They have neither the time nor the desire to parse our sentences and try to discern our meaning. Readers are demanding. They want information presented quickly and clearly. Readers are smart. They're rightly insulted when we get cute, when we play games and when we write for fellow journalists, our sources or prize committees rather than our audience. And readers have other options. They don't have to read our work; they choose to.

Source: Paul Soucy, USA Today