Career

How Not to Write an Email

I receive lots of emails from students applying for graduate school admission in the U.S. Some emails are well written and formatted and they include all the details I would need to respond to them.

Such good quality emails will make me automatically reply to them. However, there are some emails (see example below) that had prompted me to write an article like this: How Not to Write an email.

During the graduate school admission process, schools require students to send statements of purpose (or college admission essay). It will help admission committees to evaluate the students’ communication skills.

During job search, an email message will give an idea about the written communication skills of 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 by following correct 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. I hope you can use this as a learning experience and take it constructively because my real purpose is only to help as much people as possible.

Email Mistakes

  1. ur – your
  2. i – I
  3. ma – my
  4. m – I’m
  5. ma – my
  6. thngs – things
  7. whr – where
  8. u – you
  9. prob – problem
  10. brotherin – brothering
  11. wid – with
  12. d – the

Some words are repeated. In just 2 lines, you can see 12+ mistakes. The above email message might be okay when communicating with friends but not with professional organizations.

Don’t expect to get any reply when sending such kind of email. If you happen to write in such language in statement of purpose, resumé, etc., then you are not going to get admission (seriously).

Take Emails Seriously

If you happen to have such a habit when writing emails, then when you write emails for professional purpose you will automatically write in such language. If you need some email practice experience, follow good email etiquette and send an email to me.

Or else, the chances of getting my response is very low. Some of the emails I get looks better than this and I respond to them.

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5 Comments

  1. I have completed my Bachelor of Dentistry from Saudi Arabia with 3.9/5 GPA. now I am planing to do my Master of Dentistry in USA. I have a sponsorship from Ministry of Higher Education, Saudi Arabia.

    Please help me to find some Universities that offer Conditionals Master of Dentistry (Conditional on English because I don't have enough English to get 7 IELTS and I am planing to do English also in the same University or any institute near by the University) and what are the requirements that I need to fulfill to get an admission. I know its a hard question but as an Experienced person I hope you can help me.

    NB: I am writing this notes with my friend's help.

  2. 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. )

  3. 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.

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