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Even though technology changes rapidly, the rules of business and social etiquette do not. These tips provide a handy reference tool to make your emails more efficient, effective, and enjoyable—both to create and to read.

Tip 1: Check Multiple Email Accounts Promptly

When you are in a job transition, when you want to separate your social correspondence from your business, or when you’re on the road, you may make use of multiple email boxes. That’s understandable and inexpensive.

But if you have multiple email accounts for whatever reason, check your mail on all accounts promptly. You may know that one address is your primary mailbox, but others may not. And because the medium is email, senders expect a much faster response than a look-see once a week.

Tip 2: Avoid Using All Uppercase or All Lowercase

Writers use either all uppercase or lowercase because they think it’s faster to keyboard without holding the Shift key. They’re correct—it is faster for the sender…but not for the reader.

Which of the following two emails do you prefer to read?

DO NOT STOP BY. FYI I’M LEAVING FOR THE NEA ASAP VIA LA. I’M HOPING TO CONNECT WITH JOHN IN INTERNATIONAL COFFEE SHOP. SO IF HE CALLS HAVE SUE TELL HIM WHERE OFF AIRPORT ROUTE. ETA STILL NOT CLEAR. SEMINAR ROOM TBD. TELL HIM TO BRING THE MDG MODEL WITH HIM. MAY NEED TO DEMO.

Do not stop by. fyi i’m leaving for the nea asap via la. i’m hoping to connect with john in international coffee shop. so if he calls have sue tell him where off airport route. eta still not clear. seminar room tbd. tell him to bring the mdg model with him. may need to demo.

Neither would be immediately clear. Uppercase and lowercase letters are reading aids that signal a reader about sentence beginnings (new thoughts), proper nouns, and acronyms. Besides making your email more difficult to read, all uppercase is interpreted as shouting, and all lowercase, as lazy.

Tip 3: Highlight Responses in Color to Aid Reading

Rather than simply hitting the reply key and keyboarding your answers after each specific question or keyboard all your answers either above or below the original message, use your color pen to highlight your responses (Provided, of course, you know your other internal readers’ email supports color). Your answers will stand out dramatically.

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