When creating HTML emails, should we use html, head, body tags?

Question

In my email views, I usually just do something like...

   
Name
   
Value

Should

Answer 1

Whether or not you include the html/head/body tags is entirely irrelevant — they are always optional and will not affect the rendering of the document in any way.

What matters most is whether quirks mode is on or not. Unfortunately, you can’t control that in a webmail setting. Tables and inline styles are your friends. Your best bet is to test in as many webmail and desktop clients as you can.