The following is shared from CBS News:
Most people never master the many intricacies of dining etiquette — which fork to use first, in which direction to pass dishes — but the stakes aren’t especially high in that venue. Email etiquette, on the other hand, is a critically important skill to master. Email like a bumpkin and you are likely to alienate your partners, clients, co-workers… possibly even your boss.
Here are my favorite rules of the road for email:
1. Reply — No matter what. Acknowledge promptly that you received a message. If no particular response is required, just say “thanks.” If you own an “action item” but can’t get to it for a while, let the sender know you saw the message and estimate when you expect to reply. But don’t let mail pile up in your inbox without acknowledging its receipt.
2. If you’re on the CC line, don’t reply. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but you’re on the CC line for a reason — and that reason is “for information only.” Let the folks on the “to” line do their job, unless someone specifically invites you into the conversation.
3. Don’t forget the attachments. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but you shouldn’t be “that guy” who always forgets to include attachments, fails to spell-check the email, or omits the subject line. Indeed, you might want to use a tool that makes sure your emails always have subject lines and attachments when you write something like “attachment enclosed.”
4. Answer all questions. A favorite email trick is to cherry-pick a long email and only respond to the easy questions, or the issues you want to deal with, as if the sender will somehow forget that there are other questions left unresolved. Deal with each question or issue, even if it means acknowledging you don’t know the answer. But don’t make people re-ask the same questions over and over because you chose to ignore half the email.
5. Bottom line up front. I have mentioned the BLUF method many times, and it bears repeating — don’t waste your recipient’s time. Be direct and clear about the point of the email right away, then give additional context. Don’t make people wade through 300 words of back-story before they reach the action item or primary request.