E-mail Attachments Attachments are documents that are sent along with an e-mail message. An example of an attachment would be when my students submit their essays to me. One way that they do this is to write the e-mail message and then choose the attachment feature which then asks them what document they would like to send. Using a dialogue box, they choose the word processing document that is their essay, and it is then sent along with the e-mail message. When I receive the e-mail and attachment, I open the e-mail message and click on the attachment to open it. The advantage to sending an attachment is that the document sent as an attachment retains its form. In other words, if a student sends a Microsoft Word document as an attachment, then, when I receive it, I receive a Microsoft Word document instead of ASCII text.