How to Sound Professional in an Email

Sounding professional in an email can not only make you sound intelligent and experienced, but this is a great way to prove to your employer that you have the credentials needed to succeed in your position. While it’s easy to send off a quick note to someone through email, taking the time to properly word and structure an email can make a big difference in how you represent yourself and the company that you’re working for.

There is a lot that can go wrong with an email, including spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and the wrong information. It’s ideal to pay close attention to what you’re including when you hit that send button if you’re concerned with how to word something professionally.

If you’re interested in advice regarding how to sound professional in an email, take a look at our tips and tricks below.

How to Sound Professional in an Email

1. Utilize Grammar and Spelling Checks

It’s tempting to type out an email and hit send, but you should take a few extra seconds to check your grammar and spelling. Utilize the tools that you have on your computer or within your email platform to do so.

There are some things that may pass through your check that may need to be corrected. For example, people’s names, locations, and companies may be typed out incorrectly. Always do a quick search on those items to ensure they’re correct.

As far as grammar is concerned, check to see what you have in place. Grammar checkers often allow you the ability to control the sensitivity of what is caught. A suggestion will usually be made, but you should read through the suggestion before accepting it to make sure that it reads properly. If your computer isn’t equipped with anything, you can use a free resource like Grammarly to check your work.

Don’t forget to absorb what you’re correcting. You should learn about the different spelling and grammar mistakes that you’re commonly making so you don’t make them as often anymore.

2. Don’t Misuse or Duplicate Your Punctuation

Punctuation is often misused in an email. A lot of people don’t understand how to properly use things like a comma or semicolon. If you don’t know how to use them, find other ways to structure your information.

Many people often duplicate their punctuation in order to get their point across. This is very unprofessional!!! (See how unprofessional that looks?) You get your point across just fine by using an exclamation or question mark one single time.

Avoid using multiple periods to organize your thoughts.

Example:

You want to sound professional in an email by including enough information…but don’t feel like you have to put all your information in one block of text…without the use of proper punctuation.

3. Get Rid of Filler Words That Increase Length

There are a number of words that add to the word count of an email, but they don’t necessarily contribute towards how to sound professional in an email.

I can say something like:

“If you just send me over your exact email address, I can quickly send you the necessary information that you need.”

Or I can drop some of the unnecessary words to make the information more concise and easier to read:

“Please send me your email address. I can provide you with the information.”

Another example of a word you don’t really need to use often is ‘Just’. It adds an unnecessary tone to your email. If you tell someone in an email that you just need them to clarify something for you, it makes you sound like your request isn’t important or necessary. You’re almost apologizing for what you’re asking for or communicating. Put your best foot forward by trying to drop ‘just’ whenever possible.

4. Consider Your Content

In an email, you want to provide as much information as possible so that the person you’re writing to doesn’t have to follow up with additional questions. You want to do this without being too wordy. After typing out the basis of your email, go back to see if you think there are questions that are left unanswered. Provide that additional information if need be.

5. Think About Who You’re Writing To

The tone of your email should reflect the person that you’re emailing. If you’re talking to your buddy that sits across from you through email, the tone is going to be quite different than what you would say to your boss or the CEO. Use a tone that’s appropriate to convey the respect and professionalism that you should be exhibiting.

6. How to Sound More Professional in Writing by Breaking Up Your Content

Some emails can be sent with just one or two sentences, while other emails need to be longer in order to accomplish how to word something professionally while getting your point across. Make sure that you’re appropriately breaking up your content so it’s easier to read.

Example:

When thinking about how to sound more professional in writing, each individual section of your email should refer to a separate thought or topic.

Each section doesn’t have to belong, but you want a person to be able to quickly scan back through the email to find what they’re looking for.

Feel free to use bullet points for concise communication when trying to improve how to sound professional in an email.

7. Avoid Run-On Sentences

Write your email using short, concise sentences. The more punctuation you find yourself using, the more likely it is that you’re using a run-on sentence. Read back through your email and see how many times you need to stop and take a breath. You shouldn’t need to stop within a sentence to breathe if they’re concise enough.

8. Don’t Utilize Language That Isn’t Normally Part of Your Vocabulary

People often look up big and important words to try and make themselves sound more professional. If you’re not using those words in your everyday conversations, you should avoid using them in your emails.

9. Don’t Over-Format Your Text

Most email clients provide you with a number of formatting options like italics, bolding, text size, colors, and more. An email will look unprofessional if you try to use all of them in the same message. In fact, you can accomplish writing a professional email without having to use any formatting changes at all. You can also opt to just bold any really important information that you’ve included, such as dates or times.

10. Don’t Forgo a Signature

It may sound unimportant, but you should think about a signature if you’re wondering how to sound more professional in writing. Your email client should allow you to set up a signature that will automatically be included at the end of every email you send. This signature should include your full name, your business title, your contact information within the company, and anything else that would be useful for your position to help you convey how to sound professional in an email. It should be easy for someone to pick up the phone and call you if they have further questions or concerns.

Just be careful not to get too wordy with your signature. You are essentially listing your important information, but don’t feel the need to write out full sentences or quotes in this area of your email.

11. Consider the Use of a Template

If you are doing a lot of communicating through email to various people throughout the course of a workweek, think about using templates for how to word something professionally. You don’t want to use an email template if you’re emailing the same person each day. They’re going to see what you’re doing, and it will come across less professional. However, emailing different people can be done faster and more professionally if you have a template ready to go.

Make sure that you go through your templates regularly to update them as needed. This can include new information, changes in existing information, etc.

Free AppSumo’s Million-Dollar Email Templates

12. The Use of Hyperlinks

If you’re going to send someone to another resource on the internet, you can include a string of text that includes the link. You can also hyperlink your text to make it even easier for someone to get to the information you want them to see. Just make sure that it’s going to function properly in the email client that you’re using.

13. Consider the Timing of Your Email

The timing that you choose to send your email can determine how to sound professional in an email. You should strive to check your email often, and respond to emails within the hour if possible. You should never really leave an email until the next day.

The time of day is also important. It’s not professional to send out an email very early in the morning or very late at night. You’ll do your best work during the workday, and people will be able to see the information in a timely manner.

If you have a person that is looking for information that you can’t provide right away, it’s a good idea to send over a quick reply that lets them know you’re working on it. This is a lot better than leaving someone wondering if you received their email in the first place. Let them know when they should be able to expect a full response from you.

A big reason why people don’t know how to sound professional in an email is because they rush through what they’re trying to accomplish. There are also some common mistakes that can easily be corrected if you know what you’re looking for. Utilizing these tips and tricks can help you sound more professional, but you’ll also come across as sounding more experienced and knowledgeable than you were before. The next time that you start an email, don’t forget to do the following:

1. Utilize Grammar and Spelling Checks
2. Don’t Misuse or Duplicate Your Punctuation
3. Get Rid of Filler Words That Increase Length
4. Consider Your Content
5. Think About Who You’re Writing To
6. Break Up Your Content
7. Avoid Run-On Sentences
8. Don’t Utilize Language That Isn’t Normally Part of Your Vocabulary
9. Don’t Over Format Your Text
10. Don’t Forgo a Signature
11. Consider the Use of a Template
12. The Use of Hyperlinks
13. Consider the Timing of Your Email