Less Email Stress Ahead

I really enjoyed attending the seminar about email etiquette. Email etiquette is increasingly important, as in 2018, it is often through email that we make on first impression on employers or even sometimes professors. Even as I become increasingly accustomed to writing very important emails, they still seem to create stress for me as I am drafting them. Part of the reason for this stress, I think, is that so many people often emphasize how important it is to not make a poor impression over email but do not specifically describe what it is in an email that would give off a bad impression. Usually, this advice about not giving a bad impression over email is often accompanied with a vague example of one thing not to do like do not start out by saying, “Yo Professor.” I believe that the tips I learned in this week’s seminar, accordingly, will definitely help to lessen the stress. I find writing follow-up emails to prospective employers about internship applications, for example, to be particularly difficult to craft. First, I debate back and forth endlessly about whether the prospective employers will find a follow-up email pushy or whether they will perceive a failure to send one as a sign that I am not fully invested in trying to secure the position. Then, I often find myself debating about whether I have waited a sufficient amount of time before waiting to send the follow-up email. Finally, when I actually do decide that I am going to write one, I find it extremely difficult to determine what to say. Accordingly, getting the advice that, depending on the situation, it it usually acceptable to send a follow-up email about a week or two after not receiving a response and that the email can simply restate the previous email and include a short statement at the end asking if the prospective employer or other authority needs anything on my end will definitely be helpful when I am inevitably crafting another follow-up email. Also, I think a very important piece of advice that Lori gave that can help reduce the stress of writing these emails is to remember that we are emailing people—people who are busy and get hundreds of emails, and people who like to be told that you hope that they had a good weekend.

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