Email etiquette means being respectful, clear, and appropriate in messages. Email safety involves recognizing suspicious emails, not sharing sensitive information, and being cautious with attachments. Good email habits build trust and protect you from fraud.
Write a professional email and a casual email to see tone differences. Examine suspicious emails and identify phishing red flags. Practice not clicking suspicious links.
From composing and sending emails, you know the mechanics: subject line, recipient, body, send. But email operates in two distinct registers simultaneously — it is both a communication tool and a permanent record. Unlike a conversation that disappears when it ends, every email you send creates a document that can be forwarded, printed, searched, or screenshotted indefinitely. This changes how you should think about what you write and how you write it.
Professional tone means writing as if your message might be read by people you haven't met, in contexts you haven't anticipated. Practically: write a clear subject line that states the topic ("Request: Tuesday meeting" rather than "Hey"), open with a brief greeting, state your purpose in the first sentence, use complete sentences with correct spelling, and close with your name. The simplest test: imagine your email being forwarded to someone senior in an organization who has no prior context. Would it read as clear and respectful? Professional tone is not about being stiff or formal — it's about being precise and considerate. Casual language that works perfectly between friends can read as dismissive or careless in a work or official setting, especially to someone who doesn't know you well.
Email safety is the second dimension, requiring the same critical evaluation you've practiced when identifying misinformation. Phishing emails are fraudulent messages designed to impersonate trusted organizations — banks, tech companies, government agencies, employers — in order to steal login credentials, financial information, or money. The mechanics of phishing exploit three psychological levers: urgency ("Your account will be suspended in 24 hours"), authority ("This is your bank's fraud prevention team"), and fear ("Unauthorized access to your account has been detected"). When an email triggers any of these feelings sharply and unexpectedly, that is a reason to slow down and verify — not to act immediately.
The practical protocol: do not click links in a suspicious email body. Instead, open a new browser window and navigate to the organization's official website directly using an address you find yourself. Check the sender's actual email address — not just the display name, which can be set to anything — by hovering over or clicking the name in your email client. A message displaying "PayPal Security" that was actually sent from a random Gmail address is a phishing attempt. Treat attachments from unknown senders as untrusted by default. No legitimate bank, government agency, or service provider will ask for your password, credit card number, or social security number over email. When in doubt, call the organization using a number you find on their official website — never a number provided in the suspicious email itself.