School is the perfect time to start practicing your email professionalism. Students tend to let their instant messaging habits creep into their emails. This may be acceptable when addressing close friends or family but inappropriate when sending emails to professors, classmates, potential employers, or others whom you are unfamiliar with.

Here are some tips to increase your email professionalism.

First off, get a professional email address and lose the funny, cute, sexy, clever email. No one is going to take an email from xcutebabex@hotmail.com seriously. Your new email should follow the standard first.lastname@domain.com format. It’s professional and will let the receiver know who the email is from.

Include a subject line. The subject field isn’t there for good measure. Use it! I’m constantly receiving emails from people including students without a subject. The subject should indicate what the content of the email is about.

If someone is expecting a response to an email, you should respond within 24 hours.

Proofread and revise before sending your email. Most of us don’t plan out our emails before we send, and revise as we go. This can lead to misspelled or lost words. After you’ve finished writing, read your email in full. Check for spelling, grammer, and tone. Tone is important. We tend to add tone in our head as we write, but this will not be transferred to the recipient.

Use a signature. Even something as simple as including your name and email address is better than nothing. Typically you should use your full name, organization, email, phone number and any other relevant contact information.

I hope these tips help you increase your email potential.

Do you have any suggestions to add to this list?