1. Recognize your Audience- Emails to friends and family members should have a different tone than emails to teachers, prospective employers or individuals that you might not know very well. In the latter case, be sure to use a respectful tone, and check your message for grammatical, capitalization, and spelling errors. Be sure to use an appropriate greeting. If you are emailing someone and unsure how to spell their name, or how to address them, it is acceptable to use “Hello”. If you only know their first name, it is acceptable to use “Dear” followed by their first name. If you are unsure of the gender of your recipient (e.g. Pat), do not use a gender specific greeting like Mr., Sir, or Ms. In the event you are certain that your recipient is a woman, it is a safer to use Ms. unless you are certain she prefers Mrs. or Miss.

2. Use a brief, informative, and clear subject line- Your subject line should give the recipient a clear idea of the context of your message. It does not need to be a complete sentence.

3. Be careful when replying to messages sent to a group- Just because a message is sent to “All” doesn’t mean you should reply to everyone in the group. Reply only to the sender of the email so that the other recipients do not receive your reply. Remember your reply is intended only for the sender.

4. Use simple fonts- Not all computers are created equally when it comes to formatting or font capabilities. Although fancy fonts may look appealing, it is best to use “Times New Roman” which is usually the default font. This will ensure that the email is readable to the recipient. Also, color changes, italics, and bold can interfere with older email software that can only understand simple text.

5. Stick to short paragraphs- Often, people who send emails like to do so because they are convenient, quick and efficient. With this in mind, do not write a “letter“. Try to write a clear, concise, and brief message. Some email software does not have the ability to wrap well. Your recipient may not realize they need to scroll down to read the entire message.

6. Emoticons and abbreviations are for casual use- Emoticons are used to express emotion in emails. Some examples are: surprise :-O, smiley face :- ), and sad face :- (. Abbreviations such as LOL (laugh out loud), and emoticons should only be used in emails with a casual tone such as those sent to friends and family.

7. Refrain from sarcasm- Sarcasm is easy to identify when having a face to face conversation with someone. This is not the case with email. Since the recipient can not see you facial expression or hear your tone of voice, they may not know whether you are serious or joking. You could easily end up offending someone unintentionally, so by all means, refrain from using sarcasm.

8. Avoid the use of pronouns- To make sure your message is clear to your recipient, do not use pronouns within the first three lines of text. Your text should be specific so that the recipient of your email knows exactly what or to whom you are referring to. Below is an example of what not to do.

9. Do not respond to an unfamiliar email- If you receive an email and do not recognize the sender, do not open it. Computer viruses are often transmitted through unsolicited emails.

10. Avoid giving out personal information- Since it is impossible to know exactly who you are corresponding with, and how your information will be used, avoid giving out personal information such as bank account or social security numbers. Ours is a computer savvy world, and identity theft is on the rise.