'Netiquette': the unwritten Internet rules. Here's a rundown of the top three ways to make your email elegant and effective

Use an appropriate subject line
While it might be nearly impossible to handle 200 phone calls a day and still get anything else accomplished, many people get hundreds of email messages a day. To improve the odds of your message being handled correctly (or even read at all) be sure to use a short and appropriate subject line such as ‘Dinner on Thursday' or 'Conference Schedule'. If you don't use a subject line or use an inappropriate one, you run the risk of your mail being overlooked.

As every good rule has its exceptions, here is an example of when you may want to put your distribution list in the TO: or CC: fields. When emailing a SMALL group of people who already know each other (but may not have everyone's email address) and who will want to respond to the group as a whole, you can place your distribution list in the TO: field. To decide whether this applies or not, first ask yourself, 'Do I want or need to give this email list to everyone in the group?'

If you have a long list (clients, subscribers, club members) an alternative to the blind carbon copy is a free list service. These services have several advantages. You can keep your list private, yet individual members can reply to the whole list. You don't have to tie up your computer to send to each recipient, and individual members can join and cancel on their own, without your intervention. The cost of this free service is a small advertisement (usually one or two lines) appended to each message. For more information about free list services check out eGroups.com.

Don't pass along urban legends and chain letters
Folklore, in a broad academic sense, is a shared story that gets repeated and varied over time, like a giant, global game of Chinese Whispers. The ease and speed of today's email communication make it a fertile development ground for folklore such as urban legends and chain letters.

If you're amused by this folklore and want to pass it on, please, please be absolutely sure that the people you are sending it to will be as amused as you are.

Don’t send anything confidential
Email, as a medium, is about as private as a postcard. Before it lands on your computer, it travels through dozens of other computers as it bounces around the Infobahn. Even after you delete it from your mailbox, it still can be recovered from your computer and others. Don't send anything in an email that you wouldn't write on a postcard. Ask yourself, would you want your boss, your best friend, your partner or a jury to see it?

If you have a need to send secure email, one simple and free solution is the shareware product Pretty Good Privacy.

Spell check your email
Review and spell check your email before hitting 'Send' because first impressions count, and typos just add confusion to your message. Was that a 'no' or a 'now'?

Now that you've set up your return address with both your real name and your email address, double check for typos. One of my pet peeves is getting email returned to me when I use the 'Reply to Sender' function. Imagine receiving a question from a reader, taking the time to research the topic and crafting a reply and then NEVER BEING ABLE to send the response to the reader who asked because their return address is inaccurate. Annoying.

Use a signature (under 6 lines)
In order to ease the strain of typing your name at the bottom of every email message, you can tell your email software to sign all your messages with a standard signature that is stored in a separate file affectionately called a sig file.

Keep it succinct. Some call my six-line limit generous. Newsgroups and mailing lists that accept subscribers posts often have strict rules about the length of sig files - many say four lines is the maximum allowed.

Even if I was the one to ask the question, the chances are that if you send me an email that just says, 'Yes', I am not going to remember the question unless I've just asked you to marry me (which is very unlikely, since I'm already married). So, netiquette dictates that you repeat a small part of the question or original email so that I am reminded of our last conversation.

This is usually a feature that you can configure in your software, which will repeat the ENTIRE original message, placing a '>' at the beginning of each line. You can then simply delete the extraneous parts from your reply.

Don't forget to say 'please'

Remember your real-world manners. Whether you are asking someone to pass the salt or emailing someone to 'cancel my newsletter', the magic word is still 'please'.

Large files (let's say anything over 100K) can be time-consuming to download - especially for someone with a slow connection - and some email systems set a limit on how large a file you can receive.

Broadcasting email messages to multiple lists and individuals regardless of their possible interest is called spamming. Polite email users do not spam.