On Professional Communication

Greetings Student X. I’d like to suggest a few things for professional communication, which will be useful in general in professional settings, especially if you are trying to start a business.

It’s not required to bring in your personal details into professional communications. In fact, it is a distraction and makes the communication more complex than is needed. For example, I do not need to know anything about your delays in reaching the US, your business, or your kids.

Proper capitalization and spelling is critical. As soon as you make a mistake on this level, anyone reading your communication will immediately notice, and you may miss out on opportunities. For example, the first word of a sentence should be capitalized (“sorry” → “Sorry”). Spelling errors are also very noticeable (“to support my knowledge blank” → “to support my knowledge bank”). These errors give the impression that you did not give the proper attention to detail required, which implies that you do not consider the communication to be important.

Capitalize your own name at the closing.This signifies self-respect and dignity, not doing it will give a bad impression. Also capitalize the word I. In any professional communication where you use “i” instead of “I”, it immediately makes you look like an illiterate teenager and you lose all respect instantly. Don’t do it.

One technique that works well for these sort of things is reading your text over once before sending. If you take the time to read every word once through, you will be able to catch and correct these mistakes. You’ll also be able to sense the tone more clearly, and be able to intentionally remove the tone of being stressed or rushed from the communication, in order to give a more professional and dignified impression to the reader.

I’m saying these things to help and support, not to detract. Please consider these ideas carefully, as they may be more impactful for you than the content of any university course.