Rules of Netiquette
Instructions
- Review pages “Virginia Shea’s Rules of Netiquette” in your textbook.
- Find a heated discussion in an online forum (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
- Tell us what the discussion was about and describe how it was handled.
- Examine the discussion based on Virginia Shea’s Rules of Netiquette. Which one of the rules was not respected? (If there is more than one, you can note them in your response.)
- What would you change to make the exchange professional?
Netiquette
We create personal pages, post messages, and interact via mediated technologies as a normal part of our careers,
but how we conduct ourselves can leave a lasting image, literally. The photograph you posted on your MySpace
page may have been seen by your potential employer, or that nasty remark in a post may come back to haunt you
later. Some fifteen years ago, when the Internet was a new phenomenon, Virginia Shea laid out a series of ground
rules for communication online that continue to serve us today.
Virginia Shea’s Rules of Netiquette
• Remember the human on the other side of the electronic communication.
• Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.
• Know where you are in cyberspace.
• Respect other people’s time and bandwidth.
• Make yourself look good online.
258 Business Communication for Success
• Share expert knowledge.
• Keep flame wars under control.
• Respect other people’s privacy.
• Don’t abuse your power.
• Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes (Shea, 1994).
Her rules speak for themselves and remind us that the golden rule (treat others as you would like to be treated) is
relevant wherever there is human interaction.
Key Takeaways
• A text message is a brief written message sent and received using a digital device. It is useful for
informal, brief, time-sensitive communication.
• E-mail is useful for both internal and external business communications. The content and formatting of an
e-mail message should reflect professionalism and follow the rules of netiquette.
• Social customs that exist in traditional, live, human interaction also influence the rules and customs by
which we interact with each other in the online environment.
Exercises
1. Write a text message in your normal use of language. It should use all your normal abbreviations (e.g.,
FWIW, IMHO, LOL), even if not everyone understands them.
2. Find an example of an e-mail that you wish you had never sent or received. Rewrite it to eliminate the
characteristics that you find problematic. Share it with your classmates.
3. Choose at least three e-mails you have sent or received that are good examples of business
communication. What makes them good examples? Could they be improved in any way? Share your
suggestions with classmates.
4. When is e-mail inappropriate? Why?
5. Find a “flame war,” or heated discussion in an online forum and note how it is handled. Compare the
results with your classmates.
6. In your experience, how do people behave when they interact online? Share your observations with your
classmates.
References
Guffey, M. (2008). Essentials of business communication (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Houston Chronicle. (2009, September 23). Deadly distraction: Texting while driving, twice as risky as drunk
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