MEMORANDUM
To: Evan Crisp, Undergraduate Student
From: Diane Keyes, ENGL 301 Student DK
Date: November 21, 2019
Subject: Review of Evan Crisp’s Course Enrollment Request
In response to your request for support, below is a list of suggestions when emailing a professor requesting to join a full course. Editing the previously sent email in light of these suggestions regarding tone, clarity & professionalism, and grammar might increase the chances that professor Lambert will respond to the request of joining their already full English course.
Tone
- Writing with a ‘you attitude’ places the interest of the reader first. This means:
- Decreasing the number of times ‘I’ and ‘me’ is used.
- Explaining the benefit to the reader of complying with your request. For example, consider explaining how having a fourth-year student with previous English course experience in their class would ease their workload as they would have an experienced student who can support younger classmates.
- Writing in a positive tone means focusing on what can be done. Concerns that do not involve the reader can be omitted (for example, discomfort with waking up early).
- Adding appreciative phrases like ‘would be most appreciated’ and words like ‘perhaps’ indicate sensitivity to the needs of the reader and create an atmosphere of freedom which they will be more receptive to.
- Framing your desires as requests instead of demands creates a friendly rather than condescending tone.
- Communicating appreciation for the reader increases the likelihood of a message being received without defensiveness.
- Demonstrating responsibility and proactivity increases professors’ interest in having students join their courses. For example, consider writing ‘work due within the first two weeks of class will be completed and submitted before September 10th to compensate for my two-week absence’.
Clarity & Professionalism
- Formulating clear requests with the reader’s needs in mind.
- The request to hear from Dr. Lambert by 3:00 provides the reader with a clear deadline. Taking the reader’s schedule into consideration could mean phrasing this request to: ‘Being added to the course by Friday September 9th would ensure your course add/drop deadline is respected’.
- Specificity helps the reader understand precisely what is being requesting. In this case, the full title of the course, the course code, the time, and the term would be helpful to include.
- Using an email address from a trusted host such as UBC Webmail and that includes your name demonstrates professionalism and ensures your email reaches the receiver’s inbox (not their spam folder).
- Including context in the email subject line like ‘Request to join English 101’ as well as the sender’s full name and student number will help readers identify the sender.
- Addressing the professor using their title and name (for example, ‘Dr. Lambert’) and choosing an appropriate salutation given the level of formality (for example, ‘dear’) communicates professionalism.
- Writing your request as a formal letter and attaching it in PDF format adds a degree of professionalism and demonstrates the seriousness of the request.
Grammar
- Spelling words fully is encouraged. For example, re-writing ‘ttfn’ to ‘Sincerely’.
- As there is the possibility of editing when writing an email, post-scripts can be woven into the body of the document as an additional point.
Hopefully these suggestions provide guidance in re-formulating a request to join Dr. Lambert’s English course. Please feel free to reach out if further support is needed. Best of luck!
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