How to Make a Great First Impression Via Email

By Chase Pattison on May 9, 2011

by Jeremy B. Merrill
Claremont McKenna College

 

The post comes from our partners at USA Today College. Read more great posts in their blog.

“Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one,” Friedrich Nietzsche warned. And, as John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” We were told by Les Brown to “aim for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” And we know that “the person who says it can’t be done is usually interrupted by the person who is already doing it.”

These quotes are all a little corny and a lot over-used, I know, but here’s one more nugget of corniness to ponder: You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

But, it’s true, and especially important when the first impression is what scores you a job, ensures you get into the class that filled up right before you registered or impresses the upperclasspersons in charge of your favorite campus club or organization. By and large, you’ll be making your first impressions via email, which is why it’s important to follow some basic email etiquette to ensure that you appear professional.

Subject: Keep it short; keep it relevant.

Salutation: Is the recipient over the age of 25? Then begin your email “Dear” and address them as Mr., Ms., Dr. or Prof. In subsequent emails, take cues from their email signature. If it comes back signed “Brian,” go ahead and write “Hi Brian,”

Even out here in casual California, there are people who want to be addressed as Mr./Ms./Dr./Prof.Lastname. Don’t believe me? Your correspondent, born and raised in the South, had finally been convinced to address school employees by their first names. On the first such email, the response was signed “-Ms. M.” Needless to say, I hung my head in shame and learned my lesson.

Follow your salutation with two line returns.

Body: Bright blues, pinks and purples in your email is too cutesy. Just as you wouldn’t send a handwritten note written in pink ink to someone other than Grandma or your best friend (I hope!), don’t write emails like that.

it should go without saying, butt spell you’re words write and use proper Capitalization…and punctuation

And students are often less guilty of this next mishap than faculty and staff, but emails that consist of an image of a flier are beyond terrible. They are illegible on smartphones, they can’t be searched for later and their large file size takes up too much space in the recipient’s mailbox.

Closing: End on a good note! Add two more line returns, then some sort of closing and a comma, followed by your name on a new line. If you want, include a short (no more than four or five lines) signature with your phone number and your relevant title. If you’re emailing the Young Democrats, no one cares that you’re also a resident assistant. If you’re emailing your professor, he or she probably doesn’t need to know that you’re the rush chair for your frat.

My personal choice of closing is “Best,” but “Sincerely,” “Yours,” “Regards,” and even “Warmly,” are good options.

As a final note, I hope you listened to the endless college admissions advice and are not still using your email address from elementary school. YourName@gmail.com or your school email address is much better than 1337HaloLover@hotmail.com or SarahLovesSkiingSoMuch@yahoo.com – those are almost as corny as motivational quotes.


Jeremy B. Merrill is a junior at Claremont McKenna College majoring in philosophy and linguistics. When he grows up, he wants to be a dinosaur. Failing that, he would settle for journalism or natural language processing (which is the field at the confluence of computer science and linguistics). He is the web editor of the Claremont Port Side and can be found on Twitter at @jeremybmerrill or on his personal website.

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