Emails are treated by courts and regulators as documents and business records.

internal and external communications can impact Data Protection Act, sexual harassment, defamation and libel. Thus legal consequences of your actions.

Make it easy to:

- Read:

Think format, font and print size consistency.

Be professional and use grammar and punctuation.

Find the right tone, (colleagues, contacts and acquaintances) appearance, usefulness and acceptability.

- Not to read:

Subject title clear and concise for User instead of needle in the haystack search for what its about.

Avoid:

- Unnecessary:

Embarrassment with what you write or send.

Attachments or zip up whenever possible.

- Jargon, vagueness or potential for misinterpretation.

Don't:

- Ignore confidentiality and misuse 'fwd e- mail' facility. Intellectual Property issues should always be borne in mind.

- send jokes / personal / non-business related data/info. Biz is biz.

Always keep a back up of your correspondence and err on the side of caution.