As more and more people are turning to email for their personal and business communications, it is important that good practice is established as early as possible.

The following guide to email etiquette and good working procedure is far from the last word on the subject but may help newcomers to get started and more experienced users to refine their technique.

Having set up a new internet account and given out your new email address, you should check for mail regularly.

Ignoring an email message is discourteous and can be confusing to the sender.

Always try to reply to personal mail, even if a brief acknowledgment is all you can manage - there is still sufficient unreliability about email transmissions to create doubt in the mind of the sender that you ever received it.

Develop a sensible filing system for email messages you wish to keep and delete unwanted ones to conserve your valuable disk space.

The security of email messages is about the same as a message on a postcard. So recognise that others could get to see what you have written.

Claire Swire, 26, whose parents live near Uckfield, was mortified to find her explicit oral sex message to London lawyer Bradley Chait, 27, was forwarded by him to six friends and then raced across the world as far as New Zealand. The moral is, if you have sensitive messages to send, use some form of encryption (PGP is good), or use a more secure delivery service.

Be very careful how you express yourself, especially if you feel heated about a subject.

Email lacks visual clues and it is easy to convey the wrong impression. If you meant something in jest, use a "smiley" :-) or appropriate words <grin!> to convey that.

Never make changes to someone else's message and pass it on without making it clear where you have made the changes. This could be seen as misrepresentation.

Do not reproduce an email message in full when responding to it. Instead, be selective in the parts you reproduce.

Try to keep email messages fairly brief. Most people would not choose a computer screen to read text in preference to a printed document - it can be very tiring for some users.

Don't print out email messages unless absolutely necessary. It defeats the purpose of email (ostensibly a paperless medium) and is often just a waste of paper.

Be sure that the subject field of your email message reflects the content of your message. It can be very confusing and frustrating not to be able to judge the subject matter of a mail correctly from its subject field.

If you use the reply option, ensure that the subject field (usually filled in automatically) still reflects the content of your new message.

Do not send email messages unnecessarily. It is very easy to do, but can be very annoying to recipients (and wastes resources).

In particular, do not send or forward chain email - it can offend people and is extremely wasteful of network resources.

Do not send frivolous, abusive or defamatory messages. Apart from being discourteous or offensive, they may break the law.

Remember the various laws relating to written communication apply equally to email messages, including defamation, copyright, obscenity, fraudulent misrepresentation, freedom of information, and wrongful discrimination.

Be extra tolerant of others' mistakes. Some people are new to this medium and may not be good typists, some people have trouble with spelling or they may accidentally delete your message and ask you to resend it.

Encourage others to communicate with you by email by giving them your correct email address - include it on your business card and letterhead.

OH YES - AND DO NOT USE CAPITALS ALL THE TIME.

It is really irritating to read and many users say it is like having someone shout at you.