• Carefully Use “Forward to All” and “Reply to All” Functions. I have witnessed embarrassing moments of others (and recall my own painful “oops” in this regard) when messages intended only for the original sender, are, in fact, sent to everyone who may have been cc’d or even bcc’d on the original message or post. Best not to use either button at all. If you wish to respond to a message, hit “Forward” and fill in the addressee(s) as any other e-mail.

• Consider Your Voicemail Message Before Dialing. In today’s world, 9 times out of 10 a caller is transferred to voicemail, so why not prepare something intelligent to say in advance? This is never a waste of time since taking a few minutes to think about what you want to convey in a voicemail, can also be used as an outline for what you need to cover in the call, should you actually get through to your intended party.

• Do A Full Read Of Each E-mail – With each e-mail, always read through your message from start to finish before hitting “Send”. This last reading is crucial in catching any missing information or attachments and allows you to get a full understanding of the “tone” of your message. On important communications, I suggest a break between drafting and this final read. Sometimes a trip away from your PC to get a drink or use the facilities will make you “fresh” for the final review and help you catch those typos or grammatical errors even spell checkers miss!

• Formatting Counts. Formatting does count and every e-mail message should contain proper formatting, punctuation and grammar. Think back to those grade school days of essay writing and give each message a greeting/opening, middle, closing and signature too. Remember, every message should contain enough information for the recipient to understand what you need or what they need to do in response to your communication. As a courtesy, it should also include copies of any documents or previous communications referenced, if not overly large.