use a good reply format

a common reply technique is to append all the text from the original message onto the end of the the reply.  a better method is to interleave your reply text into the original message text, removing extraneous lines.  i refer to these different techniques as "prefix" and "infix" replies, respectively.  here is an example of a prefix reply and the most common problem associated with it, an incomplete response:

John,

Thursday at 3pm doesn't work for me, how about Friday at 1pm?
Yes, I'm very proud of the winglet idea, I was reading about them in a
magazine and I think it works well with in this design.

   -Sue

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Dice [jdice@foobar.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2000 1:47 PM
> To: Sue Doe [sdoe@isp.com]
> Subject: lets meet
>
> Hi Sue,
>
> I'd like to get together and talk about the design, can we do that
> Thursday at 3pm? The winglets are a really great idea, lets go ahead
> and include those in the plan. Do you think George should be there?
>
>    -John

here is the infix version:

> From: John Dice [jdice@foobar.com]
>
> I'd like to get together and talk about the design, can we do that
> Thursday at 3pm?

That doesn't work for me, how about Friday at 1pm?

> The winglets are a really great idea, lets go ahead and include
> those in the plan.

Yes, I'm very proud of this, I was reading about them in a magazine
and I think it's works well with in this design.

> Do you think George should be there?

No, I don't like him one bit.

   -Sue

the infix reply has several advantages.  first it's hard to forget to respond to a particular question or idea when you interleave your responses into the text of the original message.  second the message reads well, you can scan from top to bottom with a clear understanding of which ideas go together.  third, you don't have to type as much, you can piggyback onto the context already provided by the sender.  as the conversation progresses, older text falls away leaving only enough context to maintain clarity:

> From: Sue Doe [sdoe@isp.com]
>
> That doesn't work for me, how about Friday at 1pm?

Sure, I'll come by your office then.

>> Do you think George should be there?
>
> No, I don't like him one bit.

Oh, I had no idea. Why?

   -John

note that the entire header is not included in each the reply.  often only the "from:" field is needed to inform recipients about who said what.  in general when replying to a message, omit unnecessary text.  remove header fields, sig blocks and anything else that does not relate to the conversation.

the ">" characters indicate which lines belong to which messages, keep them intact.  a blank line between original text and response text helps keep the two clearly separated.