Most places of work require us to send messages to our co-workers and bosses. While writing to your co-workers may be a little more relaxed then writing to your boss, there still should be a common theme in your business message. That theme should be professionalism.

Subject Line – Your subject line should be to the point and relevant to the message. With the amount of e-mails that your recipient gets in a day, they may delete a message that has a subject line that says ‘Hey!’ or ‘What’s Up?!’ thinking that it’s just a nonsense e-mail that you sent out. If the message was really about an upcoming project deadline, then you are risking their job. So if the message is about an upcoming project deadline, then write that in the subject line.

Also, avoid writing your whole message just in the subject line. I have seen people who write ‘Your upcoming project deadline is Monday’ and then when you open the message they haven’t wrote anything else. This screams unprofessional and it is very annoying to say the least. So if you want your peers to like you at the end of the day, take the time to write a small and pleasant message where a message should be written.

Double Check Your Recipient Address – Too many times an e-mail can get sent to the wrong person. That person may disregard the e-mail or not bother forwarding it to the right person, even if they see the mistake you made. Some people take a “It’s not my responsibility!” attitude, and the truth is you will be the one to blame for it. So, take the time to check that your message is going where you intend it to go.

Keep The Message to The Point – Don’t write in a bunch of irrelevant information when writing business messages. The person you sent it to has probably had to wade their way through many messages already, and if yours is all over the place it could frustrate them and annoy them, which is not what you want from your boss or co-worker. Keep it to the point and on topic.

Put All The Relevant Details In It – Do not leave out some important points that should be in the message because you assume the recipient already knows those points. They may need to forward your message to someone who does not know all the little details that you left out, and if it’s to someone higher up the cooperate ladder, they may think you do not know what you are talking about or don’t have a good grasp on what is happening. Always keep all relevant and important points in the message.

Leave Negative Comments Out – Even if you are writing to your best buddy down the hall do not include negative comments. Messages have a way of being seen by other people, and it will be hard to deny calling Maggie a lazy worker if it’s clearly written in a message by you.