<p>Has anyone ever had to write an e-mail where you have to sound very formal and respectful. If so, how do you do it? I mean, it's not problem e-mailing teachers, you can be informal to an extent. For example, to a teacher, you could just write</p>
<p>Mr./Mrs ______</p>
<p>Blah blah blah blah....</p>
<p>But what about admissions officers for any reason. What about interviewers. Right now I want to send an email to the admissions office of a university to ask about their summer program, but I don't know how to start it off, or what to do.</p>
<p>I’ve had to write several e-mails to colleges and IMO its not too hard. Just
-Write seriously, don’t use slang (obviously)
-Don’t waste their time by writing anything that is not relevant</p>
<p>Tents - I usually write something very general, such as “Question about Requirements” or “Major Choice Question” etc… then they’ll get an idea about what type of email it is about. If I don’t know who I’m addressing it to (<a href=“mailto:admission@insertschoolhere.edu”>admission@insertschoolhere.edu</a>), I start off with 'To whom it may concern," </p>
<p>This is basically a template that I use-</p>
<p>Subject: Question about ______
Body:
To whom it may concern,
I am a current senior who is aspiring to ___ (something related, if its about majors, perhaps my career choice. admissions? then about ‘attending BLAH UNIVERSITY’)
I have a(or few) quick questions.
_______<strong><em>?
_</em></strong>________?
etc.</p>
<p>Thank you for your time!
Sincerely,</p>
<hr>
<p>^OKAY Those two popped up before I finished typing :O</p>
<p>I always feel awkward when teachers send me assignments or ask me about something via e-mail, and I want to be like “lol, thx :]” and instead am like “Thank you for the message.” and feel like a mean person</p>
<p>I try to be very formal in all of my emails to adults. I still freak out about it though, I just need to send Cambridge a one sentence email saying “I’ll need a visa if I come” and I’ve been stressing about it for weeks.</p>
<p>Don’t do “To whom it may concern.” It’s very stiff. Dear Sir or Madam or Dear [name] is preferable. Doing Dear [name] shows you took the time to find out who you should be emailing and can lead to a more enjoyable conversation. The last time I had to tell MIT something, I found out who I needed to talk to and it ended up being a guy to whom I had talked to in a rather informal manner before, so I didn’t have to stress out as much about the style of my email and I could speak more directly and less passively.</p>
<p>Try not to say “I” too much! And mix up your sentence structure.</p>
<p>But I believe the proper way to format your email is <a href="mailto:first.last@email.com">first.last@email.com</a> or first.(middle initial)<a href="mailto:last@email.com">last@email.com</a> – according to a business etiquette seminar. </p>
<p>Since I have absolutely no idea who is going to be receiving my email, I guess it’s safe to go with To Whom It May Concern:</p>
<p>Lawl, I was being serious about that, but I probably won’t be able to remember them all. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>There is this number that represents something to do with weed. I can’t remember what it is. 515? Nah, that’s a song. Perhaps 320. It is also a time. Apparently everyone but me knew about it.
Does anyone know what I’m talking about?</p></li>
<li><p>Something oscillating like ‘Newton’s balls’ is not a dirty thing</p></li>
</ol>