3.1 Memorandum Demonstrating You Attitude

MEMORANDUM

To: Evan Crisp, Potential student of English 301

From: Brian Wang, ENGL 301 Student

Date: November 22, 2019

Subject: Professional Email Best Practices

Thank you Evan for reaching out and asking for feedback on your email to Professor Lambert.  Registering for courses is stressful and your email is great at including all relevant information for the instructor regarding the course. However listed below are my suggested areas of improvement to ensure your message is effectively communicated to your email readers. Hopefully this will ensure a higher rate of response.

1. A more professional email address to show professionalism and ensure a good first impression
2. Subject line is important in expressing your intention so that your email can be easily navigated to by the reader
   • For example: “ENGL301 – Course Registration Difficulties, Credit Needed for Graduation”
3. A more professional email greeting also ensures a good first impression
   • For example: “Dear Professor Lambert,”
4. (Optional) It is kind to formally greet your reader before getting into your intention for writing the email
   • For example: “I hope you are doing well.”
5. Instructors get a lot of emails at the start of the term so immediately let the instructor know your name and student number
   • For example: “My name is Evan Crisp (Student Number: 12345678).”
6. This email is written in your point of view (i.e. “I’ve have been… I guess…”). Try instead to write a brief summary of the issue that help keeps the email concise. Hence editing out the unnecessary details related to the reader (i.e. too early in the morning to wake up, going to the beach, etc.)
   • For example: “I’m unable to register in your ENGL301 class and I am wondering if you could register me as an extra student of the course?”
7. Giving the reader a reason for helping you out.
   • It seems like you are graduating so you could mention something in the line of “I will be graduating after this year and I find the skills taught in your course to be extremely helpful for my future career.”
8. A proper sign-off is important for the formatting of the email. It is helpful to restate your name and student number as well
   • Example sign-off phrases includes: Sincerely, Warm regards, Best regards, etc.
9. I would advice against telling your instructor you will miss the first 2 weeks of the term since it is not relevant to the current situation at this time. You should let your instructor know once you get into the course.

I hope you find this email helpful and hopefully you will hear back from your professor.  If you have any questions in implementing these suggestions please let me know by email (brian.wang@alumni.ubc.ca).