As Danielle Lorenz observed, students typically lack the skill of email communication. Many a times, they overlook the basics of email etiquette when they email to their potential recruiters for applying a job or when they contact professors as a part of application for admission in universities abroad.
A badly written email can carry a wrong message about you. Many of the recruiter managers and university professors deem you to be unintelligent and naive if they receive a poorly written email from you.
Here are few ground basics to be kept in mind before you hit the send button after composing an email.
- Use a proper subject:
This is the most common complaint about a bad email. Never write an email with a subject such as “Hi…”, “Hello…”, “Help” etc,. Instead write an appropriate subject with sufficient information that gives a gist of your email. Such as “Job application for Junior developer by XYZ university graduate”, “Request for assistance in application for XYZ college”, “Regarding a correction in science assignment” , etc. Emails with subjects that give little or no information are more likely to be ignored by the reader. Any fairly busy recruiter or professor would receive no less than a hundred emails daily. They usually scan their inbox using the subject to answer the emails that sound important first. - Use a new subject for a new mail:
Do not abuse the “reply email” unless the purpose of your new email is relevant to the old one that you are replying to. If you wish to ask a new question or about something else other than you asked in earlier mails, consider writing a new email with a fresh subject using guidelines given above. - Avoid SMS lingo:
This is the second frequently committed error by students. How often do you send email such as these?“Cn u plz consider my profile for d job?”
Such instant messaging shortcuts and sms shortcuts make you sound like a semi literate. Always write full words and complete sentences.
- Avoid funky email addresses:
Before you send any formal email to an important person, be sure that your email id sounds formal. Never ever write to HR Managers with fancy email ids such as “angelforyou@gmail.com” or “hunkydude.rocks@gmail.com”. Best bet would be to create an email id which includes your first name and last name. If you don’t have one, consider creating an email that sounds decent and formal. - Furnish complete information:
Ensure that your email has complete information about who you are and clear explanation about the problem that you would like to bring to the notice of the person that you are emailing. It is a good practice to mention your full name, your college name and its location, years of education in college, college registration number. Proofread your email and ensure that your email gives sufficient information for the person reading your email to be able to take action. - Use ‘please’ and ‘thank you’:
Ensure that your tone is formal and humble. Use the magical words “please” and “thank you” where ever possible. As a rule of thumb use “please” to request for action on your problem and thank the reader when they reply back or take action on your problem.“Please consider my profile.”
“Thank you for your response/action.”
“I’m afraid I won’t be able submit it on time owing to xyz reason.” - Follow up promptly:
Don’t take more than a day to respond to an email response from an important person. If you happened to miss reading that person’s email owing to lack of internet access or any other valid reason, promptly apologize for the late reply stating the reason if appropriate. - Don’t abuse font:
Always prefer a plain salted email to a colorful and gaudy email filled with fonts of different colors and sizes. Colorful font and design may look juvenile to the reader. - Check your spelling & grammar:
Run a basic spell check, manually proof read for misuse of similar sounding words such as their and there, it’s and its. Check your grammar, avoid major grammatical mistakes. Remember that email is a recorded conversation, it can’t be undone once you send it across. - Leftovers:
Don’t type text in all upper case. Upper case is considered shouting in email. Try not to forget attaching the necessary attachments whenever you mention about the attachment that you are going to send along with your email. Read further on email etiquette.
So what is your take on email etiquette. Am I missing any important point? Comment below.
Guest Writer : Sridhar Jammalamadaka is a professional blogger, an entrepreneur and a music buff. He runs a blog called Interview Mantra, through which he helps people do better at job interviews. If you are looking to write for our blog, contact us and send us a Article which is related to our Blog Content and we will Publish it after a review.
Deepak Jain says
Good post Sridhar. Liked it and also tweeted about it here
@Amit
Would love to see more such posts on your blog. 🙂
Sridhar says
Hi Deepak,
I’m glad you liked my post.
Nitin says
Very good and effective
Sreeram says
I liked your article. Very few people know that recruiters filter their emails based on the subject. So a good subject would help your email to stay in their inbox for a while before they delete it.
Creating an email with first and last name is a cool thing to mention about.
jan geronimo says
Love your aversion to funky email addresses. That’s so true. It maybe cute and funny to the young set, but it’s the pits in a professional setting. Very inappropriate. Are you nuts!
Likewise for bringing SMS lingo into the email form. Very juvenile. There’s no limitation as to the number of words in email so why mangle the language at all!
Great list of helpful reminders.
Ankur Vyas says
This was a nice post – quite useful.
Sneh Roy says
This post is so spot on! I cannot tell you how many times we’ve just deleted an application based on the “chat lingo” in their cover letters. Youngsters today need to up their ante and get serious about becoming or at least acting like a professional.
Excellent post! This should help some misguided students for sure 🙂
Dhilasu says
Hi Srdhar ,
Really a good post.
let me add some points:
1)Always be precise and concise in your message.
2)If gthe mail body is too long.then apply number or else document it and attch to a mail and highlight main points in the body of the mail.
3)always mention specific date when ever required and aviod words like, “tomorrorw”,”day after tomo”,”this thursday” etc..
4)If are facing any problem and you want to convey the message be through and convey the message to receiver always mention the options you have to resolve the issue and request for their guidance.
5)Use polite or positive words.
6)never user Upper case words like”HELLO”…..keep it simple like “Hello”
Allison Anderson says
your site is very nice. I liked article Very few people know that employers can filter emails based on them. Like a good topic might help to stay in your email inbox for some time before removal.
To create an email with name and surname is a cool thing to say.
PSDDude says
I ‘ ve never think about those things 🙂 when i will write my next email i will be more careful 😉
mastiwave says
Thanks for the valuable post, I had that habit of short-cutting the paragraphs like smsing language, will follow up now and correct my mistakes. thank you again
angela says
Thank you for your very helpful post.