The suggestions below will help you craft more effective e-mails.

• Keep your notes simple, friendly, straightforward and brief. Concise e-mails are easier to read and respond to.

• Make it relevant to the recipient. Focus on the information the recipient needs. Make it clear what, if any, action is expected. If no action is required, mark the note "FYI".

• Avoid redundancy. Get to the point and avoid repeating information.

• Be "casual." E-mail is an informal medium; you aren't required to use a formal style, particularly for internal correspondence. This does not mean be unprofessional or messy with your messages however. Note: the casual tone of your message may need to be adjusted for collaboration with customers and other external sources. Please contact your business unit's communications department should you have additional questions.

• Make sure to include a short and accurate subject in the "Subject" line. Let your recipient know up front the topic you are referring to. Don't bury the subject of your note in the body of your e-mail. If they are required to take action - say so up front.

• Use "Reply with History" or "Forward". This ensures your recipient knows exactly what you are responding to and maintains a history for future correspondence.

• Wherever possible, include all pertinent information directly in the body of the note. Since attachments take up more space and require more work for the recipient to view, use them only for tasks that Notes can't handle easily, such as spreadsheets and presentations.

• Create your e-mails directly in Lotus Notes. Crafting e-mails in other word processing programs, then cutting and pasting into Lotus Notes, can create formatting problems.

• Do not use electronic signatures on routine e-mail. It increases the size of your memo and provides no value to the recipient. Limit the use of signature files to formal notes.

• Classify internal e-mail when appropriate. Check the "IBM Confidential" box at the top of your note whenever you're sending confidential information.

• Never say anything in an e-mail you wouldn't say in person.