17 email-etiquette rules every professional should know

US employees spend, on average, about a quarter of the workweek combing through hundreds of emails.

Despite the fact that we're glued to our reply buttons, career coach Barbara Pachter says plenty of professionals still don't know how to use email appropriately.

Because of the sheer volume of messages we're reading and writing, we may be more prone to making embarrassing errors, and those mistakes can have serious consequences.

Pachter outlines the basics of modern email etiquette in her book "The Essentials Of Business Etiquette." We spoke to her, and pulled out the most essential rules you need to know.

Vivian Giang and Rachel Sugar contributed to earlier versions of this article.