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Email Etiquette

Top Ten Ways to Improve Effective Use of Email

Are you finding email to be less effective tool than it was 5 years ago due to the increasing volume of email? Consider following these rules to help improve the value of email correspondence:

  1. Use better subject lines. Summarize briefly, don’t describe.
  2. Unsubscribe to un-needed mailing lists. Don’t just send them to your junk folder. If they are legitimate senders, they should have a method for un-subscribing.  Nuisance email may seem like SPAM, but it really is not the same.
  3. Stop CC’ing people unless they have a vested interest in the topic.
  4. Convert conversational-type messages to Instant Messenger or phone.
  5. Curb use of reply-to-all.
  6. Consider using subject lines that include “Action Required” or “FYI.”
  7. Use large distribution lists judiciously.
  8. Stop courtesy emails “Thanks.”
  9. Use better tools for long-term storage of email information (“H” Drive, SharePoint, etc) and for the transmission of large files (Jshare, https, etc).
  10. Do not send email that violates acceptable use policies: http://it.jhu.edu/policies/itpolicies.html