E-mail etiquette

Abstract

You probably use e-mail almost every day, but how much do you think about it? Do you default to sending e-mail, or do you consider a phone call, in-person conversation, text, printed letter, or even a handwritten note as a better alternative? Once you’ve decided an e-mail is the best option, only then does the real work begin. To: Send your message to everyone who needs the information and no one else. It’s tempting to include extra people just in case, but you run the risk of flooding them with unimportant messages and causing them to miss your important ones. Cc: The convention is that people on the cc: (carbon copy) line should be kept informed, but they don’t need to take any action. Bcc: The bcc (blind carbon copy) line can be useful when e-mailing a large list, so you don’t expose all the addresses. However, in most cases