Email Subjects

The Subject line … should be suggestive enough of the contents of the article to enable a reader to make a decision whether to read the article based on the subject alone.

RFC 850; Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages; Mark Horton; June 1983.

One of the most important rules of good email netiquette is to always enter a meaningful subject line for your email. In a typical long list of emails in an inbox, the subject line is the most prominent field, and so a meaningful subject is the most useful pieces of information you can include with your email to make it convenient to process by the recipient and deliver the message you wish to convey. Some examples of good and bad subjects are shown below:

Bad
Good
Misc Free tickets to tonight’s game!
Request Request: Widget part number
Meeting Team Building Session – All Hands

Example Subjects