I get lots of email’s from students applying for Graduate School admission. Some email’s are well written and formatted and they include all the details I would need to respond to them. Such email will make me automatically reply to them. There are some email ( example below) that make me write an article like this . How Not to Write an email.
During graduate school admission process, schools require students to send Statement of purpose ( or college admission essay). It will help admission committee to evaluate the students communication skills. During Job Search, email message will give an idea about the written communication skill about the person applying for jobs.
I certainly understand many students will not have professional experiences in writing email. I strongly suggest to utilize the opportunity while sending email to HSB. You can practice writing email following email etiquette. If you happen to send me an email looking like this
thanks a lot for ur help…i wanna do ma masters in xxxxx …m unable to find ma field related thngs so whr i shud i search for…hope u understood ma prob…sorrry for botherin u wid ma prob but plz do d needful…
Note – I did not intend to offend the person who sent this email to me. Hope you can use this as a learning experience.
Email Mistakes
- ur – your
- i – I
- ma – my
- m – I’m
- ma – my
- thngs – things
- whr – where
- u – you
- prob – problem
- brotherin – brothering
- wid – with
- d – the
Some words are repeated. In just 2 lines, you can see 12+ mistakes. Above email message might be ok to communicate with friends. But, don’t expect to get reply to such email. If you happen to write in such language in Statement of purpose, resume, then you are not going to get admission ( seriously).
Take Email Seriously
If you happen to have such habit while writing email, then while typing email for professional purpose, you automatically tend to write in such language. If you need email practice experience, follow email etiquette and send email to me. Else, chances of getting my response is very less. Some of the email, I get looks better than this and I respond to them.
Related posts:
- How to Write SOP (tips from professor) and lots of original SOP’s
- How to write High Impact College Admission Essay
- Writing Email to professor – Think Again!
- Email Template To Contact Current Students in Universities
- Do you want to know, how to write Statement of Purpose?
- Reader’s Question : GRE Twice and Low Score, Visa Rejected Twice, what next?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought that this link on Email etiquette for students relevant to this topic on “How not to write an Email”
Please do not publish my note because of securety considerations.
Thank you.
Best regards.
Dear HSB, the notes above were very interesting for me, I didn’t care formatting of my emails to the universities before, but now I understood that it’s very important. I’m an iranian student and I have subscribed to Happy School Blog. I’m passing MSc in Iran, in field of structural engineering and I am intending to continue education in US and after completing education, try to find ways of getting citizenship and employment.( Here in iran life has became very very sad and depressing and there is a dark feature for students after graduation, these problem are all because of cruel government and leadership of the country … . I’m sure thet you have heard about Iran election recently and repressing of students. For me there are two more reasons to leave my country : I hate Islam and I hate Ideologic societies. )
The plural of email is “emails,” not “email’s.” You never pluralize a noun in English by putting an apostrophe before the s. You should include that rule in your How Not To Write An Email guidelines.