Class Reflection #10

I just read an article in the newspaper that said that informal writing is creeping into teen students homework assignments. Students apparently are putting "LOL" and other abbreviated terms on their formal writing assignments. These terms (LOL, OMG, etc...) are called emoticons. I did not know that. The Pew Internet and American Life Project (the folks that did a study on the subject) found that students 'who keep blogs or use social-networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace have a greater tendency to slip nonstandard elements into assignments.' I thought this was interesting, and notice that I also do this myself. I regularly put a :) (smiley face) on most of my emails. Is this improper to do? How formal do you keep an email to a professor or prospective employer? Thoughts...? Here is a link to the article.