Three Netiquette Items To Be Careful With - Inferences, Assumptions and Presumptions

Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”

H. M. Stanley, 1871

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Some of the most common causes of negative results derived from both creating/sending or reacting to emails are from inferring, assuming or presuming.  Many of the blogs presented within the pages of previous blogs have mentioned how misunderstandings occur. To reduce or hopefully eliminate a large part of these, it is necessary to have a fundamental understanding of inferences, assumptions or presumptions and how they can contributed to "bad" emails. Let's begin with the definitions of these three words.

Here are some basic definitions:

        Inference—something we take for granted often because of a related observation or experience or something that is factually known; that is, an educated guess.

        Assumption is an accepted thing thought to be true but without proof—something taken for granted, an axiom or starting point in an argument or theory, a natural deduction. “You have to start somewhere.”

        Presumption— Omnia praesumtur rite esse acta: Latin proverb that means “all things are presumed to be done in due form.” Taken to be the case, based upon reasonable evidence. An idea that has always been believed to be right, taken for granted, not likely to be wrong. Best possible guess or conclusion.

Any composer of an email should be careful not to use any of these means in conveying a message. For example, an Inference of a "truth" to one person may indeed be not at all the same to someone else. The same can be said for assumptions or presumptions. While any of these have significant value or validity, none represent an absolute fact universally shared.

It is good Netiquette to be mindful of these potential pitfalls and refrain from sending any message which may have these attributes.

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About Netiquette IQ:
My book, "Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" and the Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my profile at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

My other sites of Netiquette resources include:

www.netiquetteiq.com - website

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www.tabularosa.net Internet products and services website.

 Paul Babicki and Frank Kovacs are co-authoring a new book on Netiquette IQ for job seekers, recruiters and employers (no official title as yet!). This book is a follow up to Paul’s current release. This book will be a part of the forthcoming Netiquette IQ compendium featuring a series of books on specific areas of Netiquette; education, sales, social media, etc. We would desire and encourage feedback from anyone who would like to contribute their thought ideas, even a segment to include in the book.

We wish to have the book to cover as many pertinent topics as possible for the job seeker, recruiter and employer. There will be an acknowledgement page in the book listing those whose ideas or suggestions are used. The persons with the five top ideas will be sent a complimentary signed copy of my current book and a copy of the new one. Comments will be closed on 1/31/2014. Kindly submit your suggestion(s) to my blog post of 12/26/2013 in the comment field.