Back in the olden days before cellphones and the Internet, were the days when sending a message to a friend meant sending them a letter and waiting days, sometimes weeks, for a response.
Now talking to anyone is as simple as sending him or her a text message and receiving a response within minutes, making the days of letter sending practically extinct.
Emails have replaced hand-written letters which definitely has its benefits, speed being number one, but it also has its draw-backs. Learning how to write a professional email is a skill every college student would benefit from learning.
Here are some tips for writing a professional letter, that will show your boss, professor, or potential employer that you should be taken seriously as an adult.
First, open your own g-mail, or professional email account. School accounts are fine, but they only work until you graduate and jsmith@gmail.com looks better in an inbox than your school student ID number, or worse, using your personal email account, xoxolilbabexoxo@aol.com.
Also, this is beneficial because your professional email account and your school email account will be separate, so the risk of losing an email from a potential employer in the midst of emails from your professors and school functions is not there.
Start with a professional greeting. According to Prowlpublicrelations.com, “Dear,” “Hello,” “Good Afternoon,” are all acceptable. Always address who you are emailing by their proper name, “Mr. Smith,” “Mrs. Smith.”
One important part of this step is making sure you spell the name of whoever you’re addressing correctly. A small mistake like this could end up costing you big in the long run.
State your purpose and get to the point; make sure you introduce yourself, whether you are sending a thank you email from an interview you went on, or you are a student in one of their classes, don’t forget to address who you are and why you are emailing them within the first few sentences.
The following paragraph should contain the information you are providing, or the request you are making. According to grammarabout.com, “Be brief and polite. If your message runs longer than two or three short paragraphs, consider (a) reducing the message, or (b) providing an attachment.”
“Spell my name right, have a well worded email, and there’s potential in there from our encounter,” says Professor Simoes, specialist in Public Relations at the University.
“If it has been more than a week don’t even bother, I would say send it within the first three or four days within meeting somebody so it’s easy,” said Simoes.
With the generation of texting, professionalism and grammar seem to have been thrown out the window. People tend to think because you are writing an email it is less formal and should be thought of the same way you email your friends.
Your text messages may be filled with improper grammar, misspelled words and abbreviations but don’t expect your boss or potential employee to know what LOL, LMAO, or ROTFL means.
Remember to include how you can be contacted in the email. Include your full name, return email address and phone number. That way, there is no confusion on how you would like to be contacted back.
Always include a closing statement, and remember to be polite. Courtesy goes a long way, thank whomever you are contacting for their time and reiterate the main point of the email.
For example, “Thank you for your time and consideration” or “Thank you, and I look forward from hearing from you in the future.”
Last but not least, do not forget to proofread your email. And after you look it over once, look it over a second time. Little mistakes like grammar and spelling are not going to be over looked, so once you finish with the first draft look it over again and again until its perfect. Because once you hit the send button there is no turning back!
PHOTO COURTESY of unikl.org
