Memorandum
To: Evan Crisp, UBC Undergraduate Student
From: Liam Plosker, ENGL301 Student
Subject: Best Practices for Writing Effective Emails to Professors
Thank you for affording help to ENGL301 students in how to write an effective email to Professor Lambert.
To receive a positive response, there are guidelines that are important to follow to demonstrate professionalism and respect for the professor. Refer to the following list of recommendations:
To ensure a positive response while respecting the professor’s time, adhere to the following recommendations:
- Use your primary email address that is for academic inquiries
- Begin your email by addressing the professor appropriately – this is a formal setting
- Offer a courteous, professional greeting before writing your inquiry – this also helps establish a respectable, formal tone to your inquiry
- Introduce yourself if the professor is unfamiliar with you – provide only relevant details about your background and qualifications, and where you are located if that is a pertinent factor in your request
- Lay out your reasoning for wanting to be added to the course, underpinning the benefits the course has to offer. In a concise manner, provide any relevant background on a pre-existing passion around particular topics which this course covers.
- State you acknowledge the course is full and recognize the inconvenience making an exception would cause a professor.
- Inquire about potential alternatives to this, such as being put on a waiting list for this course, or finding a similar course elsewhere
- Close with gratitude toward the professor taking the time out of their day to consider your request. Maintain the formal and polite tone of the introduction and email body.
- Read over the email for possible grammatical errors and typos.
- Re-read over it for possible grammatical errors and typos.
- Make sure the message of the email is as concise as possible, respectful of the professor’s time
- Check one last time for any tonal, stylistic or grammatical changes which the email would benefit from.
- Send the inquiry email to the professor.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, crafting emails to professors, or in other formal contexts, requires studious attention and practice. However, even if there are minor mistakes – be them tonal, grammatical, or otherwise – if the overall intention of the email is clear, the professor will likely have a positive, helpful response. Hopefully these were useful suggestions when writing a formal email to a professor, or any other figure. If you have any feedback or questions regarding this, you are welcome to follow-up.
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