"common etiquette" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to refer to the accepted social standards of politeness and courtesy that people generally adhere to in public or when interacting with others. For example, "Following common etiquette, Jerry held the door open for his coworker as she walked through."
But he also could sit stonily silent through a dinner that bored him, or contradict and interrupt in defiance of all common etiquette.
Neither style has many formal rules, but common etiquette prohibits a player from biting or pulling the hair of an opponent, grabbing the reins of an opponent's mount, or using weapons.
Teaching children to graciously receive a gift they are not thrilled with is a common etiquette question, but last week, a parenting quandary came in that took the problem just a little farther.
No less an authority than Eleanor Roosevelt (who authored the "Book of Common Sense Etiquette," published in 1962) wrote that kindness and morality had to be reflected in rules of etiquette.
Drawing on her own wide experience in social, political, and diplomatic situations, no less a personage than Eleanor Roosevelt published her own typically practical Book of Common Sense Etiquette (1962).
Dr. Wilson said that when he and his children, nonbowlers all, recently went bowling, they were mortified when others gently scolded them for failing to observe common bowling etiquette, like taking turns with bowlers in neighboring lanes.
The motivation, however, wasn't due to feared legal repercussions, so much as common robot/human etiquette.
The lady in front of me slammed the seat back the instant we hit 10,000 feet, because common airline etiquette went out of fashion years ago.
It's common golf etiquette for a group playing quickly behind another one to play through and go past them.
For the basic and most common table etiquette, you should keep your elbows off of the table, don't slouch, keep your mouth closed while chewing, don't smack and don't talk with your mouth full.
"So why not just let it go to voice mail?" Other common executive-etiquette transgressions include people who answer their phones or BlackBerries in the middle of meetings, and text messages and e-mails without proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.
