Today's college applicant is much more likely to email, not call, someone with a question or request. Whenever you email someone, the person on the receiving end is going to make assumptions and judgments about you based on what you write and how you write it. So here's an email checklist before you send anything to an admissions officer, teacher, counselor, or anyone else involved in your college application process.
1. Do you actually have permission to email this person? A college rep who hands you his card at a college fair and says, "Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions" has given you permission. But just because you found the email address for the Dean of Admissions online doesn't mean she's invited you to email her. Don't be a spammer.
2. Make sure your email address is just a name, not something embarrassing like sexyhotpartyguy33@email.com. Get a new email address just for college application stuff if you have to.
3. Make the subject line something descriptive. "Question" isn't descriptive. "Question from a fall 2011 applicant" is.
4. Address the person by name at the beginning, like, "Ms. Harrington-" Imagine if someone walked up to you and just started asking you a question without even saying hi first. Wouldn't it be rude (and a little weird)?
5. If the person doesn't know you or may not remember you, identify yourself in the first paragraph.
6.Keep your email to one screen. Don't write something so long that they have to scroll through it.
7. Use punctuation, capitalization, and proper grammar. Don't make excuses not to do this. This is not a text message. Nobody ever looked stupid for sending a properly capitalized and punctuated email, but they have looked that way for ignoring the rules.
8. Observe the difference between "your" and "you're." Sorry–I know that's related to #7 but it's ignored often enough that I thought it deserved its own mention.
9. Don't ever type in all caps. When you write "PLEASE RESPOND TO ME ASAP" it reads like you're yelling at the person.
10. Be careful with exclamation points for the same reason. "I really hope you can write my letter!" sounds like you're yelling.
11. It's OK to write like you talk as long as you're respectful. "The purpose of my email is to request your assistance with my college applications" is too formal. "I'm writing to ask you if you might be able to help me with my college applications" gets the job done.
12. Use a normal font. Think black type and normal size. No bright colors, cursive, blinking lights or animated creatures of any kind.
13. If you're asking for something, say "please."
14. Always say "thank you" at the end.
15. Proofread it carefully.
16. Type your full name at the end of the message. If you need a reply back, leave a phone number, too, so the person has the option of calling.
17. Don't include a quote in your auto-signature. You don't need to remind this person that "the only way to have a friend is to be one." And nobody in the history of email has ever read one of those quotes and said, "Wow, that really made me stop and think."
18. Be careful CCing people on the email. The receiver doesn't know those people. Imagine if you walked into this person's office and didn't introduce the two people you brought in tow.
19. Think twice before you mark your email "urgent." It might be urgent to you, but it's not necessarily urgent to the person you're sending it to.
20. Read it through one last time and try to imagine receiving this message yourself. Is it clear? Is it polite? Does it make you want to reply? If the answer to any of those questions is "No," wait to send it until you re-write your way to a "Yes."
*Bonus email tip that may or may not have to do with college admissions:
Are you angry? Are you sending this email to someone who's made you angry? Warren Buffet once said, "You can always tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow. You don't give up that opportunity." But once you put your anger out there, it's there. You can't take it back. So write it, but don't send it. Come back tomorrow and read it again. And if you're still angry, then click "Send."
teacherlady says
This is such a great post. Thanks for giving me ideas on how to teach my students this fall for how-to’s regarding online conversation.
shafii says
nimekuelewa. please respond. c u