I am positive that the majority of students use e-mail for a good part of their communication. Often e-mails I receive from my peers make me frown in concentration as I try to decipher the contents. As frequent text message senders and Twitter users, they adapt their habits to e-mail as well. Full sentences are replaced by phrases, words are shortened and nouns become single letters.

The habit is ok by itself. You may even call it an efficient way of writing, and laud the merits of an evolving language which best reflects the needs of the time. However, the problem arises at the reader end. It could be that the reader, like myself, is not a frequent text message or Twitter user.  Or it could be the reader is simply someone who likes to see the language used as it is used in standard contexts.

The before mentioned frown is very real. I often have no clue what some of the acronyms, if they can be called that, stand for. Online searching yields dictionaries, like techdictionary.com and webopedia.com, for the abbreviation-challenged, but if you are like me, you do not want to look up these phrases every time you get someone’s e-mail.

If good communication is ultimately the purpose in sending an e-mail, it is not served if your reader has a hard time deciphering what you have written. If the reader is not someone who knows you very well, your writing style may even cause the reader to judge you, such as if the recipient of your e-mail is a potential employer or someone you would meet in a formal setting.

Practicing writing clearly and professionally in e-mails can help you communicate more effectively. Your first impulse when you write an e-mail will always be to do what you do frequently, and if good e-mail practices are a part of that, it can only benefit you. Even though they are more applicable in work settings, it is always a good idea to be aware of them. After all, I can assure you at least a few of your e-mail readers would genuinely appreciate your efforts.