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Final Lesson 1: Email Correspondence
Communication: Sending Emails
Email is the primary method of communication between students and university faculty and staff in the college setting. In fact, email is the primary way the university distributes information to its students. (Source: Kolowich, S. [2001]).
When you send an email, you communicate information beyond the content of your message. The person who reads your email will notice how it is written in addition to what you have written. Although the "what" is fairly straightforward, the "how" can have many facets, including your writing style, the tone of your message, the vocabulary you use, whether the email is polite, the clarity of your message, and your use of correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Based on both the content and the other elements of your email, the recipient will form an impression of you, either for better or for worse. That is especially true when the person you’re emailing doesn’t already know you. When your email is the recipient's first impression of you, it can be an extremely influential part of the recipient's ultimate opinion of you. The recipient might draw conclusions about your communication skills, your abilities as a student, your professionalism, your level of maturity, how seriously you take your education, and more. Even if you are an excellent student who is invested in
your education, a careless email can give the wrong impression to your professors. Although it’s possible to create the wrong impression, with care, you can create the right impression. By using appropriate email etiquette and paying careful attention to how you compose emails to faculty and staff, you can ensure that you communicate what you want to communicate.
Video-Communication: Sending Emails
Writing Effective Emails
Getting People to Read and Act on Your Messages
Email has long been a core tool for business communications, but a 2013 survey by Sendmail, Inc., found that it has caused tension, confusion, or other negative consequences for 64 percent of working professionals. So, how can you avoid your emails doing this? And how can you write emails that get the results you want? In this lesson, we look at strategies you can use to ensure that your use of email is clear, effective and successful.
Video: Creating Effective Emails
Overview
The average office worker receives around 80 emails each day. With that volume of mail, individual messages can easily get overlooked. Follow these simple rules to get your emails noticed and acted upon.
- Don't over communicate by email.
- Make good use of subject lines.
- Keep messages clear and brief.
- Be polite.
- Check your tone.
- Proofread.
If you have a very short message to convey, and you can fit the whole thing into the subject line, use "EOM" (End of Message) to let recipients know that they don't need to open the email to get all the information that they need.
(Of course, this is only useful if recipients know what "EOM" means.)
Keep Messages Clear and Brief
Emails, like traditional business letters, need to be clear and concise. Keep your sentences short and to the point. The body of the email should be direct and informative, and it should contain all pertinent information. Unlike traditional letters, however, it costs no more to send several emails than it does to send just one. So, if you need to communicate with someone about a number of different topics, consider writing a separate email for each one. This makes your message clearer, and it allows your correspondent to reply to one topic at a time.
It's important to find balance here. You don't want to bombard someone with emails, and it makes sense to combine several, related, points into one email. When this happens, keep things simple with numbered paragraphs or bullet points, and consider "chunking" information into small, well-organized units to make it easier to digest. Notice, too, that in the good example above, Monica specified what she wanted Jackie to do (in this case, amend the report). If you make it easy for people to see what you want, there's a better chance that they will give you this.
Be Polite
People often think that emails can be less formal than traditional letters. But the messages you send are a reflection of your own professionalism , values, and attention to detail, so a certain level of formality is needed. Unless you're on good terms with someone, avoid informal language, slang, jargon , and inappropriate abbreviations. Emoticons can be useful for clarifying your intent, but it's best to use them only with people you know well. Close your message with "Regards," "Yours
others. To write effective emails, first ask yourself if you should be using email at all. Sometimes, it might be better to pick up the phone. Make your emails concise and to the point. Only send them to the people who really need to see them, and be clear about what you would like the recipient to do next. Remember that your emails are a reflection of your professionalism, values, and attention to detail. Try to imagine how others might interpret the tone of your message. Be polite, and always proofread what you have written before you click "send."
Guidelines in Writing an Email
- Use an informative or descriptive subject line. Avoid vague phrases, such as follow-up, additional information, and requests.
- Keep the subject line short.
- Never change the subject line when you are replying to an earlier sent email.
- The to line should contain the e-mail addresses of the primary readers (directly involved in the subject of the e-mail) while the cc line must contain the e-mail addresses of the secondary readers.
- Double-check the correctness of the recipient's e-mail knowledge.
- Make the file name of the attached document meaningful. Instead of using "memo", use "transmittal_memo_2016annualreport."
- State your purpose in the first sentence of the e-mail.
- If the message is highly sensitive, draft it first in a word processor. You do not want to unintentionally send an e-mail being drafted.
- Do not misrepresent the truth or facts because an e-mail creates a written record of such dishonesty.
- Know the context of your e-mail whether formal or informal and use appropriate language.
- Use short paragraphs because long paragraphs are hard on the eyes.
- Begin with writing the message before typing the recipient's email address. In this way, you will not be
prone to accidentally sending an empty or unfinished e-mail to your target recipient.
Dos and Don'ts'
Receiving an email that neglects punctuation and reads like one continuous, run on sentence is an immediate red flag to a professor. Also keep in mind that professional correspondence rarely needs many exclamation points. If you really need to emphasize a thought, a single "!" should be sufficient. In addition, avoid writing anything in all capitals. Using all-caps is the written equivalent of screaming. If you wouldn’t scream the content at someone, then don’t write it in all-caps. If you need to emphasize a single word or phrase, use bold, underline, or italics instead. Even changing the text color to something more noticeable is preferable to all-caps.
In the "meat" of your message, you should strike a balance between providing detailed enough information without reaching information overload. Certain key information should always be included, such as the course and section number you’re in, your full name, and what you need from the recipient. You don’t want the recipient to finish your email and still wonder who you are, where they know you from, or what you want. But it’s equally important not to waste time by sharing too much detail. If you have something that needs a lot of explanation, you should use
your email to request an appointment to discuss the matter either face-to-face or on the phone.
One of the most challenging aspects of writing good emails in the college setting is getting the tone right. It’s difficult to convey tone in emails, and you need to make sure that you’re coming across as respectful and professional, but not robotic and distant. The language you choose and the way you phrase things makes a big difference. It's helpful to enlist a trusted friend to read over your emails and share their impression until you get the hang of how to create the right tone.
You should also pay attention to language that may be emotionally-laden or overdramatic, or that could put the recipient on the defensive. If the emotional tone of your email elicits this type of reaction, it’s less likely to lead to a helpful response or to the results you want.
Finally, remember that emails can be easily (and even accidentally) forwarded to others, so be careful about what you say. Ideally, you shouldn’t include anything in an email that you wouldn’t want shared with others. Since you may sometimes need to email professors or other university personnel about personal matters, that may not always be avoidable. However, you can avoid sending emails with any content that you may regret due to poor choice of words, disrespect, or emotionality.
face together unless they’ve had significant contact with the student outside of class setting.
Finally, it’s perfectly acceptable to indicate if an email is urgent or needs a reply. This can be a helpful way for busy university personnel to prioritize. For example, if an email subject line reads "Question about tomorrow’s test," a professor can see at first glance that it might need to move to the top of his list to reply to. Some email programs even have a little "urgent" indicator that you can click to flag the message in the recipient’s inbox. However, do not abuse this feature! Your instructors are not sitting in front of their emails all day. If you don’t get a response immediately, either wait or try a different method of communication.
Format of an Email
Email Etiquette
- Never use the business email for something personal. Instead, use your personal email.
- As much as possible respond to the email within 24 hours. Never let someone hanging by not responding to his/her email.
- Do not send an email to someone who may not be interested in reading the message.
- Avoid using all caps in the main text.
- Avoid emoticons and informal jargons, like LOL and BRB in formal emails.
- Introduce yourself if its your first time to send an email to the recipient.
- Use BCC instead of CC when sending sensitive information to multiple recipients. When you are the recipients of sensitive information, you do not want others to know about it.
- Delete old messages in continuing email conversations.
- Avoid sending usernames and passwords, credit card information, and other highly sensitive information via email.
● However, some aspects of your writing—especially tone, correct spelling and grammar, and respectful language—should remain formal. ● Once you’ve gone back and forth in an email exchange a few times, you may be able to reduce the level of formality. Some aspects of emailing can become more relaxed fairly quickly. For example, once you’re certain that a professor knows who you are, you can likely drop the detailed context in each email. If it’s someone with whom you have a closer relationship (e.g., a long-term advisor instead of a new professor), you may even be able to use more casual language or informal greetings. However, some aspects of emailing should never become casual in the university setting. Always maintain an appropriately professional tone, use respectful language, and use good spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.
Explain and Analyze!
Read Cameron’s email below; then its email assessment of what makes it wrong based on the guidelines and format in crafting an email.
● There’s no subject line. ● The salutation is extremely informal. ● The professor might not know the student and the email doesn’t include a last name. ● Professors teach several classes each day. There isn’t any way for this professor to know which class Cameron missed. Therefore, he or she doesn’t know what slides to send. ● The incorrect grammar, punctuation, and informal writing may give the impression that the student isn’t serious about school. ● Cameron doesn't list an excused reason for why he missed class. ● The professor isn’t required to send notes to a student who missed class. To do so is an exception to the rule. If the student wants the notes missed in class, he should make a very good case for why he needs them and why he missed class.
