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Sunday, October 3, 2010

E-Mail Like a College Student – Not a BFF


Alright, I’ll keep this one short. When you’re in college, guess what, college is your job! Yes, you are an employee of (Blank) University or The College of (Blankity Blank). So, as an employee – who, yes, gets paid really bad – you should carry yourself as such. You should conduct business as such. You should communicate as such. To be more specific, your emails should reflect an interaction between yourself (the responsible employee) and your boss (the Prof). Your emails should not, cannot, and MUST not look like a text message, even if you’re sending them from your iPhone. This means:

You should have a greeting (Hello, Good morning, Greetings, Dear).

The body of your email should be below the greeting. Your “i’s" should be capitalized. You should write in COMPLETE sentences. The punctuation should be correct. And, above all, keep it brief!

In your conclusion, it should begin with a closer (Thank you, Sincerely, Best wishes, Be blessed). You should sign with your name (how else will they know it’s you?). You should also include your preferred method of contact (cell, email, Skype) – which goes below your signature/name.

Yes wonderful peeps, technology is a beautiful thing, but let’s not bastardize it by emailing Profs as if they are our friends. No text ling. Say NO to “lol,” “thanx,” “yo,” “ttyl,” etc. etc. etc.

A few more tips:

Always hit spell check before sending.

Always proofread before sending.

Never hesitate to use emails to set up meetings, ask questions, and get more details about class assignments.

If you’re emailing your Prof to BS them (my stomach hurt, my dog ate my homework, my grandpa died for the 17th time since I’ve been in collect), please don’t waste their time. Why? Because they know. It’s a sick sense that Profs get when they earn their PhD.

Go forth. Type. Proofread. Send.

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