In this electronic age, it’s so easy to click a few buttons and send messages to many people. Email is one of those methods. I must admit that I’m an email addict, but let’s remember some basic etiquette when sending emails, shall we?

1. Be courteous in your tone. It’s all too easy to type quickly and forget basic manners that you’d otherwise have when talking to someone in person. Say “please,” “thank you,” and ask for things nicely.
2. Don’t send emails with text in all caps. Lots of text in all caps is very hard to read and oftentimes comes across as “yelling.” Use all caps sparingly.
3. Don’t spread junk mail. Too many people forward emails containing stupid jokes and worthless chain mail. That sort of junk just wastes time when we’re trying to get work done. Yes, email is actually a productive work tool for many. It’s really disappointing when I see people forwarding spam containing attachments that most likely contain viruses.
4. Use “reply all” sparingly. Have you ever received an email from someone complaining about this or that with a billion names in the CC line? You’re allowed to disagree with the sender, but just use “reply” and save all the other recipients in the CC line from listening to your argument with the sender. Better yet, if you want to send something to a huge group, use the BCC field. What’s that? Read the next item (#5).
5. Use the BCC field. As CC stands for “carbon copy,” BCC stands for “blind carbon copy.” Email addresses you include in the BCC field are not shown to the recipients. This approach removes the possibility of a recipient using “reply all,” as warned in item #4. Besides, displaying and sharing email addresses with a huge group of people could be considered a breach of privacy. Not all of the people included in the more typically used CC field want their email addresses made public with a bunch of strangers. Of course, if everyone’s part of a familiar group, then it’s probably okay - there’s a good chance they all have each other’s addresses anyway.
6. Check your spelling. Have enough respect for your recipient and take the necessary steps to check your spelling. Fortunately, most email clients (Outlook, Apple Mail) have a spell checker. While using web mail, browsers such as Firefox have a spell checker built in.

Email is a great tool for communication. I don’t know what I’d do without it.  Let’s keep it useful.