Assignment 3.1 – Memo of Advice to Evan Crisp

To: Evan Crisp, UBC Student

From: Byung-Sun Park, ENGL 301 Student

Date: March 22, 2023

Subject: Best Practices in Writing an E-mail to a Professor Seeking to be added to a Full Course

Dear Evan,

Here is the memo for best practices in writing an e-mail to a professor seeking to be added to a full course. The principles below can lead to more professional and refined e-mail messages to a professor.

Best Practices in Writing an E-mail to a Professor:

• Including a subject – A subject is the first component of an email that the reader will read. A concise but meaningful subject is important because it provides a summary of a body of an email for readers.
• Including details – Providing more details such as the student number and the course code instead of just saying “one of your English classes” can help the professor identify the writer and clarify the context of an email.
• Asking rather than notifying –  Asking for consideration for the situation is better than just notifying the plan when composing an email to request something. Just notifying the plan such as “I’ll check in with you when I get back” is not respectful in an email to a professor.
• Keeping positive expressions – Using strong and negative expressions such as “refuse” and “way too early” is not appropriate in a formal email to a professor. Turning the negative into the positive in writing can improve an email into more reader-friendly.
• Avoiding abbreviations – Abbreviations such as “asap” and “ttfn” is not appropriate in a formal email to a professor
• Avoiding slang – Using slang such as “Hey” is not appropriate in a formal email to a professor.
• Avoiding imperative voice – By editing out imperative phrases, the tone of an email can be more friendly to readers.
• Eliminating unnecessary information – Unnecessary information to the subject of an email, such as “The 8:00 am section is way too early in the morning for me” and “before I head off to the beach at 3:00”, can hinder the effective delivery and appeal of the contents to the reader.

Email is a primary tool to communicate with professors for UBC students. Adhering to the above practices can help us compose more professional email messages. If you have any questions, please call me at 236-865-0684 or email me at byungsun1819@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Byung-Sun Park