The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe

1. DON'T SAY PLEASE Instead of seeming polite, adding "please" can come off as a sign of frustration. It's difficult to use in writing without seeming obnoxious. And saying "thank you" in advance while asking for something is off-putting; "it's a command crudely cloaked in premature gratitude."

2. FORGET THE FLAG Flags and priority arrows are annoying. Is your e-mail really more important than everyone else's? Convey urgency in the subject line or within the text of your e-mail.

3. PUT YOUR BOSS FIRST You may not realize it, but people actually do pay attention to whose name comes first in the TO field. Order recipients by rank.

4. SPEAKING OF YOUR BOSS—SHE MIGHT BE READING According to a recent study, 38 percent of companies employ people to monitor their employees' e-mails. Even personal e-mails are fair game if they're sent from company computers.

5. WHEN YOU'RE MAD, PICK UP THE PHONE