Email Writing Etiquette

One skill that pays dividend forever!

Do you know Ramanujan’s story? He was a simple man from no name town in India with no formal education. He used to play with numbers in his free time. One day he decided to write a letter (because there was no email then :/) to GH Hardy a famous Cambridge Professor and expressed his interest to work with him. This simple letter changed the course of the mathematical problems previously though unsolvable. Ramanujan could see the relation between the numbers in such a way that no one could see.

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Today I am not here to tell you Ramanujan’s story. I am just here to say how important an email can be in your life. Being able to communicate your idea nicely and concisely to a University/Employer/Investor can have a life altering effect in your life. Sometime in 2018 December someone from Memorial University replied my email and said they like my work and are interested to work with me. I was sitting in my Hall with 5 other girls in the same room, here I am writing a newsletter for you 5 years later. None of these would have been possible without me believing I am good enough for a Foreign University. Was I scared? Yes. Did I doubt myself? All the time. But I sent it anyway.

Someone who is reading this email is also having doubt in their mind. I mean this is normal. Overconfidence is a big indicator of narcissism. Most of we are normal people and we are normally scared when we try new things. Here are some simple etiquettes to follow when you are writing an email. I am confident if you can follow this strategy you will increate the chances of getting a reply.

Email Subject Line:

A good email has Three main parts. The address line obviously. Otherwise nobody will receive your email. The second part if the subject line. This is where most of the people mess up. Subject line should be clear and concise. I have seen like a thousand times people writing their entire message in the subject line of the email :/. Lets say you are writing an email to prof, the subject should be ‘prospective graduate student for fall 2024’. If you are writing an email to HR manager You can state the name of the position you are applying and the requisition number in the subject line. Take help from Chat GPT if you have to. But please make sure you do that please.

Main Body:

• Start with Hello…./ Dear…. (Last name) I personally prefer Hello because you can say Hello to everyone. Dear sounds little weird to me. I mean they are not dear to me IDK :/

• In he first line you can add a sentence line Hope you are having a great day/Hope this email finds you well etc. I personally don’t care much about it. From my personal experience I have seen Canadians are very serious with their politeness. They will never let you leave a place without bidding good bye/ have and amazing day bla bla…. When you are in Rome be like Romans. In the same line very briefly state who you are and the reason behind your email. So this part should be

“Hello Dr. ABC,

Hope you are having a good day. I am Toma Rahman a International relations Student from University of Dhaka. I am writing this email to express my interest to work under your supervision.”

• The reason behind this etiquette is to show respect towards the reader time. The reader can easily decide from the subject and the first two sentences to judge if this email is important to them right now or not.

The Second Para is the most important para:

Here you have to show you are actually interested about this person and you have taken time to research about them. In case of professors you can go through their publications/ twitter/ LinkedIn to see what they are up to. In case of writing to a HR manager the LinkedIn trick applies as well. A few days ago I was sending an email to network with a person and I went ahead and mentioned their favorite book. I said I know such and such book is your favorite and here is my take on the same book. I knew that person would reply. I was right. As a human being we all like to be followed and admired. We all get genuinely happy when someone takes genuine interest in our life. When you mention some their favorite book or publication that person instantly know you follow them and follow their work. you are not just a number on the spreadsheet for them. Trust me. this is the secret sauce. from now on apply this trick to everyone. even your spouse. secretly be a detective and find out that they are desiring and tailor your gift according to that. You can make the people do anything for you at that point. You can say but you has time to do these. May be you don’t but someone sure does. Now How Would I write this part?

“Recently I read your paper on Voting Behaviors of the Newfoundland Population since 1999 to 2019 elections. There you argued people tend to incline more towards conservative form of government during the time of crisis and during peace time liberal government gets predominance. I am interested to see the effect of peoples’ voting behavior in Bangladeshi context. I would really appreciate if I get a chance to work with you.”

See here I mentioned their specific work and their research finding and I expressed my interest to work on similar project. If I have more time I would go and try to find a connection between these two research. For newsletter purpose I am being lazy here. another important point to notice here I am not being obsequious. I am not saying I beg most respectfully to state that I am poor I cant pay my tuition and give me money. I get really annoyed when people sound whinny. Nobody cares whether you are poor or rich. People only care what value can you add to their life. You would not read this email unless this would add value to your academic life. In this way, you will be less disappointed. Everyone has their own problems. Don’t share your weaknesses. I have learnt it the heard way :)

End Strong:

When I was writing my email I used to write this para in a descriptive way. The main objective of this para is to sell yourself. You have to mention you CGPA, GRE, IELTS, Publication, Job etc. I used to write it in a descriptive manner. Now I think bullet point is getting better response.

“CGPA: 3.37

IELTS: 8

Work Experience: Research Assistant with …… Organization.

Thanks for taking time to read my emails. My academic resume is attached with this email. Please let me know if you need any further information. I would be happy to talk about this research project or any other relevant research project with you.”

You don’t have to attach you transcript or research proposal unless the professor is explicitly asking you to do so. Make sure you go through the prof’s website to see if there is any other requirements.

Make a professional signature. Here is a website link. Don’t make it look like average digital marketer chokra bokra design. Keep it simple and professional, add your LinkedIn, email address, Phone no, website (if any) in the signature line.

If you need someone to breath on your shoulder and make you do all the stuffs I have been writing about you can send me an email. I will make your life very very hard. :D

PS. My Husband think I need help because I am always planning something new in my free time and get stressed. What you good people do please let me know.