Author: Tsakani Stella Rikhotso

• Email has become one of the driving forces behind connecting businesses to the Internet. It offers fast, economical transfer of messages anywhere in the world. As local telephone calls are free in most parts of the South Africa, messages destined to long-distance destinations become effectively free to send. Outside of the South Africa, local calls tend to be chargeable; therefore the email system can reduce the telephone bill considerably. The substantial cost-cutting associated with these facts have encouraged many businesses to invest in an implementation of email services.

• Email has considerable benefits over traditional paper based memo’s and postal systems:
• Messages can be sent at any time across the world as easily as across the office, to a group of people or a single recipient, without the sender leaving their desk.

• Messages can be logged, ensuring some form of record is held, and messages are stored when the recipient is away from their desk.

• The recipient can collect their mail when they want, from wherever they are.

• Mobile users can collect their mail whilst out visiting customers, or at other locations.

• The person you are sending the message to gets it directly, without passing through any third party.

• Environmentally friendly! Unless requested, email messages require no paper or resources other than storage space on a computer disk drive.

An e-mail address typically has two main parts:

editor@internet-guide.co.uk

• The first field is the user name (editor) which refers to the recipient’s mailbox.

• Then there is the sign (@) which is the same in every email address.

• Then comes the host name (internet-guide), which can also be called the domain name. This refers to the mail server address, most usually having an individual IP address.

• The final part of an email address includes the top-level domain (TLD). For the above address this is ‘co.uk-, which is for commercial sites based in the UK.

The header of an email includes the To: Cc: and Subject: fields. So you enter:

• The name and address of the recipient in the To: field,
• The name and address of anyone who is being copied to in the Cc: field, and
• The subject of the message obviously in the Subject:

The part below the header of the email is called the body, and contains the message itself.

Spelling the correct address is critical with an email. Like with a normal postal letter, if you get the address wrong it won’t go the correct receiver. If you send an email to an address which doesn’t exist the message will come back to you as an Address Unknown error routine.

Email is shorthand term meaning Electronic Mail. Email much the same as a letter, only that it is exchanged in a different way. Electronic mail (email) is the term given to an electronic message, usually a form of simple text message that a user types at a computer system and is transmitted over some form of computer network to another user, who can read it. Computers use the TCP/IP protocol suite to send email messages in the form of packets. Microsoft outlook allows one to send and receive emails.

PROGRAMME ALIGNMENT – 116935

SO – Specific Outcomes

 AC – Assessment Criteria

Specific Outcomes (Practical Competency, Skills) (SO)

Implies the ability to apply acquired knowledge practically in the workplace to achieve a related task. An observation checklist relating to the set assessment criteria are used to assess the learner’s achievement of the specific outcomes.

Assessment Criteria (AC)

The criteria against which the achievement of the specific outcomes of a unit standard are measured. Assessment criteria are normally set for specific outcomes only, with essential embedded knowledge implied in the assessment criteria.