HERE ARE A FEW GUIDELINES TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN  SENDING E-MAILS TO YOUR COLLEAGUES: Basic English Language Skills •  Always use a relevant and descriptive subject line. •  Write your e-mail in clear and simple language. •  Structure your message clearly, and include only the necessary  information. •  Don’t type your e-mail in ALL CAPS. •  Always proofread your e-mail before you hit ‘send’. •  If you include a link in your e-mail, make sure that you provide some  context. •  Only mark an e-mail as ‘urgent’ when it really does require immedi- ate attention. •  Don’t use the CC’ or Reply All’ functions unnecessarily. What’s urgent to you may not always be urgent to your recipients. Only send your e-mails to the people who really need to see them. Your recipients are unlikely to click on a link if they don’t have any  idea as to what they are going to see when they open it. Grammar and spelling errors come across as unprofessional. This is regarded as the online equivalent of shouting. Take care not to confuse the message by including too many topics  in one e-mail. Respect your colleagues’ time, and try to keep your  messages as short as possible. Don’t try to sound too formal, and don’t use complicated words  when simple ones would work just fine. As far as possible, write in  the active voice. E-mails with blank subject lines may be marked as spam by the  recipient’s e-mail client, and e-mails with non-descriptive subject  lines such as “Hello” or “Meeting” may be ignored.