So this week I want to talk about email addresses and professional emails. Your email address says a lot about you and is one of the first thing people look at when they open your email. Professionalism is so important when it comes to every email you send. You don’t want people to judge you before they even open your email so here are some tips for professional emails:
Use Your College/High School Email If You Have One
School emails are really simple. They prove professionalism because they show that you attend a school and take your education seriously. If you are sending an email to your professor, sending them from a school email is often the only way that they are able to respond to you. I know no one likes to check their school email, but lucky for you a lot of schools are moving over to Google school email accounts so it's really easy to send and respond to emails from your smart phone!
Use Your Name If You Are Using Another Email Use One With Your Name In It
It is really simple to just use your first and last name as a email address. If your name is overused maybe add numbers or just use your middle name to make it more personal. As I stated above depending on who you are emailing they still may not be able to respond to this email, but for people outside of your school setting a simple email with your name should work just fine!
Always Use The Proper Titles In Your Professional Emails
Becoming a Dr. takes a really long time! If your teacher goes by something different that's totally fine, but if they don't it is important to address your professor with respect if that is the structure of your emails with them. If you don't know if they like to be called Dr. or not, go with the easy route and call them Dr. anyway.
Spell Check Is Your Friend
Simple emails to check up on an assignment or schedule a meeting with someone is no place for typos and grammatical errors. It only take a few minutes at most to start and use spell check and a few minutes to proofread for errors that spell check doesn't catch. Your professor/employer will thank you because you took a few extra minutes from your day to make sure the email looked good.
Spell check is awesome, but sometimes you need to go past simple spell checkers. If this is the case for you, I highly encourage that you check out Grammarly. Grammarly is my ALL TIME favorite spell checking software because it goes above and beyond most simple spell checkers. I use it to draft perfect emails and perfect papers that wow my professors every day. If spelling and grammar is not your thing I really encourage that you check out Grammarly.
Be Careful Of When You Send Your Professional Emails
I personally don't like sending emails too late at night. I try to cap my email sending at around 9-10 PM just because I'd rather send them earlier when people are still awake. This doesn't mean you have to always follow this rule and sometimes late night emails are neccessary. If you can send an email earlier in the day though I highly encourage it.
Don't Be Afraid To Follow Up, But Give Them Time
The inbox of most professors are full to the brim with information. They have dozens (if not hundreds) of emails to browse through on a daily basis. It's okay to follow up, but be sure that you are giving the person time to respond to the first email. If it's time sensitive try giving them a call instead if you can. If you can wait a few days before you need a response follow up in 48-72 hours (especially if you sent the email on the weekend.)
Final Thoughts
Bottom line when it comes to emails that you send out to people, make it appropriate and professional. You want people to take your requests seriously and get back to you as soon as possible. Just like people judge you based on your Facebook profile, they will judge you based on your email address.
