Where Should the Text Go?

So we have the quoted text. And we have our own message. How do they match?

While some may argue that the text of the reply should go above the quoted text, I do not think so. It makes more sense to first get the topic (the film "The English Patient") and then the sender's remarks on it ("Did you like it?").

Naturally, the individual sections of the reply go below those sections of the original message they refer to. The first topic may be Baby Boe, followed by your remarks, and the second topic is the English Patient, also followed by your remarks. This could look like so:

> Yesterday, Boe almost ate the newspaper! I guess she's
> going to become a big, big reader...

Does she also eat your keyboard?

> I watched the English Patient on DVD, btw.

Did you like it?

Cutting the Quoted Text

In almost all cases one sentence or even some words are enough to recognize the topic. Recognizing the topic is what quoting usually is all about.

Thus, it suffices if you leave the central sentence of a long sermon as the quoted text. Of course that also means that you should delete everything that is not on topic and that you are not replying to.

Formatting the Quoted Text

This is a pet peeve of mine: formatting the quoted text. Which looks "better"? This or the version above?

> Yesterday,
> Boe almost at the newspaper! I
> guess
> she's going to become a big, big reader...

Does she also eat your keyboard?

> I
> watched the English Patient on DVD, btw.

Did you like it?

This torn sentences effect happens whenever you edit the quoted text (as I have just recommended). Unfortunately, most email programs do not help us with formatting the quoted part of an email message.

All they do is quote the text. While the non-quoted text is re-wrapped to something readable, this does not happen to the quoted text.

Here, using HTML helps because it often leaves the line breaking to the email client of the recipient.