The 5 Worst Email Mistakes That Make You Look Unprofessional

We use email to communicate important information with our colleagues every day ― and yet many of us, unwittingly, are doing it in ways that may make us look immature and less competent.

“When glaring errors are missed, it comes across as unprofessional and gives the impression that you don’t pay attention to details,” said Deb Lee, a digital productivity coach and consultant.

Here are some of the worst culprits of email unprofessionalism:

1. Your email has spelling and grammar errors.

There is nothing like the stomach-dropping dread of realizing you misspelled your recipient’s name.

Spelling errors make you appear careless, which is why Lee says spelling and grammatical errors are two of the top mistakes that will make you look unprofessional.

To avoid these embarrassing missteps, double-check the spelling of your recipient’s name and any titles they have. Lee also suggested reading your email aloud so you can catch mistakes. “You’re more likely to catch them when you hear them,” she said.

Most email programs come with a spell-checker, so take advantage of it. Lee recommended browser extension features like Speechify for Gmail or ReadMe, a text-to-speech tool for Chrome that can read your email aloud.

And if you do make a mistake with someone’s name, “give your apologies and make sure to get it right the next time,” Lee said.

2. You hit ‘reply all’ automatically.

Roping all of your co-workers into a reply-all chain will make you the main character at work in a bad way.

“A big mistake I see people make is hitting the ‘reply all’ button without reflecting on whether a reply is necessary,” said career strategist Ana Goehner. “You may get stuck in a chain of ‘reply all’ messages, flooding your inbox with ‘Thank you’ or