This study looks at literacy practices involving the use of email in a Further Education college. In order to explore literacy practices the study addresses how email works as a communicative act; how email is managed at both individual and institutional levels; what attitudes and values are attached to email and whether different groups within the college use email differently. The underpinning theoretical basis of this study is the New Literacy Studies, which theorise literacy as social practice. Emails are explored as literacy-in-action in order to infer the literacy practices that underpin their use. Hymes' ethnography of communication is used to analyse emails as communicative acts. Lave and Wenger's concept of community of practice is also drawn on in looking at different groups of practices. The predominantly qualitative· research takes the form of a case study with an ethnographic perspective. A range of data collection instruments are used, including questionnaire, diary, interview and compilation of a corpus of 408 emails. Analysis includes textual analysis using categories developed from Hymes and Critical Discourse Analysis. It is hoped that data from this research will have relevance for literacy teaching, organizational management and IT training.