By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Name the three parts of an email address and spot a mistyped one.
- Find the inbox, sent, drafts, spam and archive folders in an email program.
- Choose correctly between To, CC and BCC for a given message.
- Describe in order how an email travels from sender to reader.
Email is still the key to almost everything online: job applications, bank notices, school letters and the accounts you create on other websites. Learning to use it well is not only about sending messages. It is about knowing where a message goes, who can see it and what is happening when you press Send. In this lesson you will learn the parts of an address, how an inbox is organised and how To, CC and BCC change who sees what.
What email is, and the postal analogy
Email (electronic mail) is a way of sending written messages, and files, across the Internet to a person's mailbox. Think of an ordinary letter. You write it, put it in an envelope, write the address on the front and post it. A sorting office reads the address and passes the letter along until it reaches a postbox. The owner opens the postbox when she is ready. Email works the same way, except that every step takes seconds and the postbox is a space on a computer called a Server.
To use email you need an account with a provider. Many people read their mail as webmail: they open the provider's website in a Browser, log in and read the messages kept on the provider's servers. Others use an email program installed on the laptop, such as Thunderbird, which is available on Ubuntu and Windows. The messages and the ideas are the same either way. Webmail has the advantage that you can reach your mail from any device, so long as you can log in safely.
The parts of an email address
An email address always has the same shape: a name, an at sign and a domain name. The name before the @ identifies the mailbox. The part after the @ identifies the provider or organisation that runs it. Every address in the world is unique, so a message sent to it can reach only one mailbox.
amina.wanjiruMailbox namewhose mailbox@At signseparates the twoexample.orgDomainwho runs the mailboxRead this figure as text
The fictional address amina.wanjiru@example.org split into mailbox name, at sign and domain.
The fictional address amina.wanjiru@example.org is split into three labelled parts. amina.wanjiru is the mailbox name or user name, which says whose mailbox it is. The @ sign means at, and separates the name from the domain. example.org is the domain name, which says which provider or organisation runs the mailbox.
Addresses are not case sensitive in practice, they never contain spaces, and a full stop in the name is allowed. When someone tells you an address over the telephone, repeat it back letter by letter. Your own address will be the one that you give to banks, shops and schools, so choose a simple, sensible one that you will not be embarrassed to put on a form.
The inbox and the other folders
Your inbox is the folder where new messages arrive. Alongside it, every email service has a few standard folders. Learning their names stops you thinking that a message has vanished when it has only been moved.
| Folder | What is in it | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox | New and unfiled messages | Keep it tidy; an overflowing inbox hides important messages |
| Sent | Copies of messages you have sent | Check here to confirm that a message went |
| Drafts | Messages you started but did not send | Most services save a draft automatically |
| Spam or Junk | Messages the provider thinks are unwanted | Look here if an expected message is missing; it is emptied automatically after some weeks |
| Archive | Messages you want to keep but not see in the inbox | Archiving is not deleting; you can still search for them |
| Trash or Deleted | Messages you deleted | Usually emptied after about thirty days, but this depends on the provider |
- Marker 1: Folders
- Marker 2: Inbox: new messages
- Marker 3: Selected message
- Marker 4: Compose a new message
Read this figure as text
A simulated browser window showing a webmail inbox with a folder list and three messages.
A simulated browser window with the address mail.example.org. The sidebar lists Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam and Archive, with Inbox active. The main area lists three fictional messages: Joseph Kamau with the subject Meeting on Thursday, Library Service with Your book is ready, and Fatuma Odera with Photos from Sunday. Marker 1 points to the folder list, marker 2 to the Inbox row of the list, marker 3 to the first message, and marker 4 to the toolbar item Compose, which starts a new message.
To, CC and BCC: who gets the message
A new message has three address boxes. To is for the people you are writing to and expect to act or reply. CC (carbon copy) is for people who should be kept informed. They are not expected to act. Everyone who gets the message can see every address in To and CC. BCC (blind carbon copy) is for recipients whose addresses are hidden from all the other recipients. The people in BCC can see To and CC, but they cannot see each other and the To people cannot see them.
- Expected to act or reply
- Seen by everyone
Use for the person you ask
- Kept informed only
- Seen by everyone
Use sparingly
- Address hidden from others
- BCC people cannot see each other
Use to protect privacy
Read this figure as text
Three columns comparing the To, CC and BCC boxes of an email by purpose and visibility.
Three columns. To: for the person you are writing to, who is expected to act or reply; everyone can see this address. CC: for people kept informed, who are not expected to act; everyone can see these addresses. BCC: for recipients you want to hide; the other recipients cannot see these addresses, and the BCC people cannot see one another.
A good use of BCC is a message to a group of people who do not all know one another, such as parents of a club or members of a neighbourhood group. If you put everybody in To, you hand every address to everyone. That is a privacy leak, and it also lets a stranger's account become a target for spam. BCC avoids it. Do not use BCC to secretly add somebody to a private argument, however. Hidden recipients can damage trust when discovered.
Subject lines and signatures
The subject line is the one line a reader sees before opening the message, so it should say what the message is about in a few plain words. Compare Hello with Question about the cleaning rota for Friday. The second tells the reader what to expect, helps them find it later and makes it less likely to be mistaken for spam. A good subject is specific, short and honest. Do not write in capitals only, and do not leave it empty.
An email signature is a block of text added automatically at the bottom of your messages. Keep it short: your name and, for work, a role or a telephone number. Do not put your home address or personal identity numbers in a signature that goes to everyone.
How an email travels
When you press Send, your message does not fly directly to the reader's screen. It is handed from one server to the next, like a parcel passing through depots. Your provider uses the domain name of the address to find out which server receives mail for it, using the DNS. The message is then delivered into the recipient's mailbox, where it waits. The recipient's own device fetches it when she opens her mail. The whole journey normally takes a few seconds.
Read this figure as text
A sequence diagram showing a message moving from Amina's laptop through two mail servers to Joseph's laptop.
Four actors, left to right: Amina's laptop, Amina's mail server, Joseph's mail server, Joseph's laptop. Message 1: Amina's laptop sends the message to Amina's mail server. Message 2: Amina's mail server asks the DNS which server handles mail for the domain in the address, shown dashed. Message 3: Amina's mail server passes the message to Joseph's mail server. Message 4: Joseph's mail server keeps it in his mailbox until his laptop collects it, shown dashed.
If a message cannot be delivered, you normally get an automatic reply within minutes, often with a subject such as Undeliverable or Delivery Status Notification. It will say that the address was not found, that the mailbox is full or that the server could not be reached. Read it. The most common cause is a typing mistake in the address.
Common mistakes
✖ Instead of: Putting every recipient in To when writing to a large group of people who do not know each other.
✔ Do this: Put your own address in To and the group in BCC, so that no one's address is shared.
✖ Instead of: Leaving the subject line empty or writing only Hello.
✔ Do this: Write a short specific subject such as
Question about Friday's cleaning rota.✖ Instead of: Assuming a missing message has been deleted.
✔ Do this: Check the Spam or Junk, Archive and Trash folders, then use the search box.
✖ Instead of: Typing an address from memory without checking it.
✔ Do this: Pick it from the suggestions or copy it from a trusted message, and read it once before pressing Send.
If something goes wrong
- I cannot see the CC or BCC box when I compose a message.
- Many programs hide them to keep the screen tidy. Look for a link or button near the To box labelled Cc, Bcc or Cc/Bcc and click it.
- I received an automatic message saying the address was not found.
- Compare the address with the one you were given, letter by letter. Look for a missing letter, a wrong domain or a stray space, then send it again.
- An expected message is not in my inbox.
- Check Spam or Junk, Archive and Trash, then search for the sender's name. Ask the sender to confirm the address they used.
- My message is stuck in Outbox or Drafts and has not been sent.
- Check that you are online. Open the message and press Send again. If you were using a program, wait for the connection to return.
Key terms
- email address
- An email address is the unique name of a mailbox, written as a user name, an @ sign and a domain name.
- inbox
- The inbox is the folder where new email messages arrive.
- webmail
- Webmail is email that you read and send in a web browser, with your messages kept on the provider's servers.
- CC (carbon copy)
- CC is a box for people who should see an email for information and are not the main person you are writing to.
- BCC (blind carbon copy)
- BCC is a box for recipients whose addresses are hidden from everyone else who gets the email.
- email signature
- An email signature is a short block of text, such as your name and contact details, added automatically at the bottom of your messages.
Practise it for real
Reading is not the same as being able to do it. Complete these on your own computer, then tick only what you have actually done. These ticks are your own honest record: nothing checks them for you.
Tour your mailbox
Open your own email account in your browser or email program. Find the inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam or Junk, and Archive folders. Open one message and say which part of the address is the mailbox name and which part is the domain. Then start a new message with Compose, look at the To, CC and BCC boxes (you may need to click a link such as Cc or Bcc to show them), and close it without sending.
Choose the recipients
Write on paper which box (To, CC or BCC) you would use in each case: (a) asking a teacher a question, (b) keeping your manager informed of a decision, (c) inviting twelve neighbours who do not know one another to a meeting. Then, if you have a second email address of your own, send yourself a test message using BCC with one address to see how it looks when received.
Knowledge check
6 questions. You need 80% to pass. Mistakes here are part of learning, and you can retry as often as you like.
Summary
- An email address is a mailbox name, an @ sign and a domain.
- The standard folders are Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam or Junk, Archive and Trash.
- To is for people who act, CC for people kept informed and BCC for hidden recipients.
- A clear subject line saves the reader time.
- An email passes through at least two servers and is not private by default.
Checklist: can you do these?
Marking a lesson as read does not prove you can do it. Skills count as demonstrated when you pass the quiz (not yet) and complete the practical tasks (not yet).
Related lessons
References and further reading
Official sources for details that can change between versions.
- Thunderbird support: email basics (Mozilla)
- Get Started with Outlook (Microsoft)