I am not asserting that you should accept my word on this (or anything else for that matter), but look into the credentials of the authors of the articles I cite. Point out flaws is their premisses or in the logic of the arguments they make. I am all for questioning authority, but the burden of proof lies with the party that seeks to discredit the established expert published advise.
Not quoting at all is, in fact, an acceptable technique. Just make sure you are writing full sentences and paragraphs. The subject line only rarely set the full context. Top posting at work, where there are no archives, and new people can be drawn into the message at any point, is a little more defensible. Top posting is, of course, the preferred form for forwarding an email. It is plain common sense, if you think about it, that forwarding a message is different than replying to a message, and that posting to an archived listserv might have more sophisticated protocol expected than replying to a close friend. Here is an entertaining explanation as to why most people think top posting, and not spell checking, and all kinds of other ill manners, are okay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September Yes, I will happily shut up about this. Just don't anyone reply back!
