A subject on your e-mail is important. Some people will even trash e-mail's without a subject. Make sure yours pertains to the text of your message. If you change the topic, change the subject.

Quote the exact section of text to which you are replying

It is proper to quote a previous letter when replying to it, like this:

>One of the best survival novels I ever read was "Last of the Breed" by
>Louis L'Amour (not a western). It was about a half-Sioux (I believe)
>pilotshot down over Siberia.

Notice the angle brackets ">". These are put in automatically by the e-mail program. BUT... many programs do this to the ENTIRE e-mail by default, do NOT allow that to happen. People do not want to reread an entire letter they just read. Just quote the exact section of text you are referring, like shown above.

Do not use all caps

THIS CAN REALLY GET ANNOYING. All caps generally looks like you are yelling.

Use a spell checker

Most email programs (including AOL) come equipped with a spelling checker, use it.

Do not send messages like, "Take me off this list"

At the bottom of every email are clear instructions for removing your address from the list.  Also, in every header there is an email address you can click on to generate an unsubscribe e-mail. Finally, you can always visit the PALS Member Maintenance page for help.

In general, do not send attachments through the list

Files can generate a huge amount of throughput and people usually are not interested in the file anyway. Some mail programs, like Netscape, will default to "Send HTML" or "Send MIME", these are actually attachments and often result in you message being posted twice to the list. Once as text and once as HTML. This is just an annoyance to your readers. Turn the HTML setting off. (Sometimes these messages are just bounced back to you, so you have to turn it off.)

Be mindful of other people's feelings

It is easy for a reader to mistake your "tone of voice" in an e-mail. If you are discussing a hot topic, hold the e-mail for a few hours after you've written it and reread it later. Be careful of areas that could be misinterpreted.