An e-mail address is made up by a name you decide and information about the account. You can include numbres, symbols and letters. Some people decide to have their name as part of their e-mail address, others only include their initials, and many others include a nickname, their favorite group, the organization they represent and even the year they were born. This really depends on you. After this, your address will have this symbol @ which means "at", then you have the internet service provider, for example it can be: usa, hotmail, yahoo, aol, and many more depending where you open your account. This is followed by a dot and three letters that represent what kind of service the account holder is affiliated with, a commercial provider has the letters com or net, if it is a government affiliation it has gov at the end or if it is from a educational institution it has edu. So your e-mail may look like this: carlos80@usa.net or mta@hotmail.com. You can be creative and think of a very interesting address.

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Now, lets see how to open an e-mail in a commercial provider. The first thing you must do is to go to the web page where your account will be. For example if you want to open an e-mail in Netaddress you must go to or if you prefer hotmail or yahoo you have to go to or . Once you are inside the web page look for the word e-mail around the page. Sometimes you go directly to this page. Since you are a new user you must click on the SIGN UP button or icon. A new screen will display a questionnaire to be filled with your personal information. You must be careful that it is for an international account. You will also be asked to pick a name and a password. This information will be useful to you every time you want to read or write mail. Therefore, it is important for you to take note or remember these words. When you have finished filling the form you must click on the SUBMIT or ENTER button at the end of the page. Sometimes your login name has been already chosen by another user, you are asked to change it or accept one of the options given. After all this, a new screen appears offering subcription to e-mail magazines (e-zines), it is up to you if you want to receive this information later in your e-mail. It is advisable not to pick too many because your account might get really full. If you don't want to chose any, go to the end of the page and click on the SUBMIT button. The next screen will be your new e-mail. A page that you will see everytime you enter.

Now that you have an e-mail here we present some basic information you might find handy . First of all, an e-mail is not exactly a letter. It is a simpler way of writing. Every e-mail account has a tool bar usually on the left side. Here you find buttons with specific instructions. If you want to send mail press the Write Mail or Compose depending on where your account is. Next, a write page will appear. On the top, in front of the word "from:" write your e-mail address, below you will see the word "to:" write the e-mail address of the person or persons you want to communicate with. After that you have to specify the topic of you e-mail by writing a clue in front of the title "Subject:", It will appear on top of your screen. Finally, you will see the letters CC: which means carbon copy or courtesy copy, here you can include the address of another person in case you want him or her to get a copy. Lower on you screen there is a blank space where you can begin typing your message. Once your letter is finished press the send button located at the end of the page. Some accounts include the same button in the upper part of the page.

There are some special things you have to take into account when writing an e-mail. For example:

• You don't need to include the date, the city or any formal heading.

• Do not type using capital letters, this is consider shouting.

• Your name should be written directly below the text and no tabulation is necessary.

• Keep your message relatively short and to the point.

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