Top e-mail irritants

Lack of formal greeting or sign off Spelling mistakes Overfamiliarity Grammatical errors

A survey carried out for MSN has found some shocking lapses of etiquette in the messages passed around by people under 25.

Many youngsters prefer to send e-mail rather than write a letter, but the survey reveals that most have no conception of what counts as proper manners when penning a digital missive.

To help the e-illiterate, Debrett's and MSN have produced a short guide, setting out proper e-mail manners for a generation that has never written a formal letter.

Love and kisses

The survey found that e-mail is gradually becoming the preferred method for tasks that in the past have been done face to face or with pen and paper.

It found that 10% of women have dumped boyfriends by e-mail, and that 44% think an electronic thank you note is as acceptable as a paper one.

Electronic greetings cards are also proving popular with 27% sending them to wish people seasonal greetings or to send birthday congratulations. But despite this increasing reliance on e-mail, few people change writing style when typing formal and informal messages.

Two-thirds of the 18-24 year olds questioned do not worry about punctuation, grammar or style when writing messages. About 16% sign every e-mail with love and kisses, even when addressing their boss.

Top tips

Despite this lax attitude the vast majority of people, 82%, believe good manners matter online, and 56% of those questioned get annoyed by e-mail messages that were over-familiar, included spelling or grammatical errors, or lacked a proper greeting.

The Debrett's and MSN guide has some useful information for those trying to create the right impression.