Lost in Translation – The Art of Writing a Good Email
I am currently finishing up an internship at Temple University’s Office of Facilities Management (OFM) at the Health and Sciences Campus. While the internship is not directly related to advertising, I have found that many aspects of the job will be helpful to me in my future career. Of those aspects, learning how to write a good email to clients is one of the most important.
When I started, I had never had to write a professional email before. I was accustomed to either casual emails or exchanges with professors or bosses with whom I had a good rapport. However, at OFM sending emails to set up meetings and respond to problems with with work being performed was one of my primary duties. In order to get an idea of what the tone of my emails should be, I looked at some emails that my supervisor had sent to clients. I found that to be very helpful when crafting my emails, since it allowed me to create emails in a manner with which clients were familiar when dealing with OFM. I also, made sure that I explicitly mentioned all points I needed to get across or questions I had in order to avoid having to send more emails since I did not relay or receive all of the necessary information from the first email. In my opinion, sending unclear emails that need follow ups in order to do the job that one well written email could have accomplished looks unprofessional, so I made sure to read over all emails before I sent them to ensure that they were worded as clearly as possible.
Overall, I have found that my email skills have improved since I began my internship. I believe properly wording emails is a very underrated skill. It is kind of like the saying about offensive linemen in football, you only notice them when they’re not playing well. The same goes for emails. It is likely that you will only take note of the structure and wording of an email if it is done poorly. Because of that, I am thankful my internship offered me the chance to get some practice at email communication.
