Students going into their first year at University may wonder how to properly communicate with their professors or other industry persons via email. Here is a guide!

Through the course of your higher education, you will have to write several emails to faculty members, other staff, and even external correspondents. Following proper email etiquette will serve you well even beyond your time at university, in a world more reliant than ever on electronic forms of communication.

**Please note that even if the reply from your instructor is phrased casually, you should maintain your email etiquette**

Before emailing, check if the information you need is available on the documentation already provided to you

• Avoid vague subject lines
• Keep subject lines descriptive and short
• Use proper email punctuation
• Practice good grammar
• Resist emojis in email
• Choose your email salutation carefully

(For your instructor, “Dear Dr___” is sufficient.)

• Respect the person’s pronouns and preferred title

(Dr, Prof, Ms, Mr, Mx, She, Him, They and so on. Look for these cues in their emails if you don’t already know)

• Leave the right impression with your email sign-off

(“Regards,” “Best wishes,” “Sincerely,” or similar variations are all fine)

• Triple-check your recipient’s name
• Use sentence case (Capitals at the beginning of sentences, for proper nouns)
• Consider your email’s tone
• Perfect your email signature

(Provide your full name and the class and section you are in. You may consider setting an email signature to make this easier)

• Think before forwarding. Avoid unnecessary forwarding
• Respond in a timely manner
• Be careful about using the ‘Reply All’ button
• Give the other person time to respond before sending follow-up emails

(Do not expect them to reply to you outside working hours even if they have done so in the past)

• Do not send multiple emails when all the information can be contained in one.