by Charles Ray

Created on: May 09, 2009

Email is one of the most convenient, and at the same time annoying inventions of the last century. With email, you can stay in touch with dozens of your friends and share information with the stroke of a key, and that's a real advantage. It is also a real pain, as you are 'in touch' with all these people 24/7, and the dopey stuff you just wrote which, if it had been on paper would have been consigned to the trash bin, can now be seen by uncounted numbers of recipients around the world.

Here are a few tips to make email the truly useful tool it was designed to be.

1. Write your emails as carefully as you would write a college composition. Once sent, there is somewhere in the system, a permanent copy, so you should want it to represent you at your best. Most email progams have a spell checker, so make sure it's enabled so that when you hit the 'Send' button it checks for errors before sending.

2. Don't answer every email you get. If someone sends you an email thanking you for your previous email, stop right there. Please, please, don't send a one word 'Thanks' in reply. This is totally unnecessary and merely clogs up an already overburdened network.

3. Use real words and put them into complete sentences, grouped into logical paragraphs. Unless you are writing to that high school chum with whom you share a secret language, LOL, OMG and BTW should be spelled out (lots of laughs, oh my god and by the way). It is not gd 4 U 2 rite like this (It is not good for you to write like this). Emails containing this kind of passage look unprofessional and for many hard to read.

4. Don't open emails from unknown senders. While most virus programs are contained in attachments to emails, some emails send signals to the sender as soon as they are opened. This can give a hacker or phisher entree into your system. Use the preview pane that is now standard on Outlook, to see the message content without actually opening it. If you have any doubts, delete it unopened, then empty your trash can.

5. Emails don't necessary have to be short, nor should they be too long. Like Abraham Lincoln said about the length of his legs, "long enough to reach the ground." Make your emails long enough to get your desired message across and stop.

6. Keep your inbox clean. Don't leave emails collecting dust in your inbox forever. If an email contains something you need, create an appropriate folder and move it from your inbox. If there is nothing you need in the email,

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