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4.2. WRITING CORRESPONDENCE

Written correspondence is essential to scientific practice. Letters, e-mail, and memos allow you to build and sustain relationships with your colleagues, so everything you write should represent your character and abilities fairly. Because scientists are often busy people, your written letters and e-mail should be concise and specific. Readers tend to look at letters, e-mail, and memos quickly, so you should use shorter paragraphs than in a formal scientific paper or report. In addition, think carefully about the audience and purpose of the communication — to whom are you writing, and what do you hope to accomplish? — and the tone that you use. Thinking carefully about your audience and your tone can help you answer these types of questions and write effective professional correspondence.

E-MAIL

Personal versus professional e-mail

As you know, e-mail is a popular, easy way to stay in contact with friends and family. The e-mails you send to your friends are most likely informal. For example, an e-mail about dinner plans might be only a few lines long and use the same language you would use if you were talking in person.

When you are communicating with someone professionally, however, e-mail is more important. In fact, e-mail is often the main mode of communication for scientists

— so how you write an e-mail can shape what other scientists think of your character. A well written e-mail can impress the reader and show that you are thoughtful and responsible, whereas a poorly written e-mail can damage productive relationships or keep you from forming new ones. Therefore, before sending an e-mail, you must carefully consider your audience and the tone you will use.

Organizing an e-mail

Like all written correspondence, an e-mail message has a salutation, in which you greet the recipient; a body, which includes the main text of your message; and a closing. It also has a subject line that appears alongside your name and the date in the recipient's inbox.

The subject line might well be the most important part of your e-mail because it helps the recipient decide whether your message needs immediate attention or whether it can wait until he or she has more time to answer. The subject line you write should be descriptive but brief. A good subject line can help you plan the rest of your e-mail.

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Once you have placed your main idea in your subject line, you can put that same point in the first paragraph of your message so that it stands out — a practice sometimes called frontloading. Any related ideas that require immediate attention should also come as early in the message as possible. If you bury requests or questions in the middle or at the end of the message, your reader may lose interest or delete the e-mail before he or she reaches your request. Avoid this problem by summarizing your main points, questions, or requests in the first paragraph, then elaborating only if needed in the body of the e-mail. If your message is urgent, say so both in your subject line and early in the e-mail (but consider calling the recipient instead, if possible).

Considering audience, purpose, and tone

Before you send an e-mail, think about the person who will receive it. Do you know this person? If so, how do you know him or her, and how well? Is he or she in a position of authority over you? For example, if you are a student, are you writing to someone who is a professor or an established researcher?

Next, think about why you are writing this e-mail to your recipient. Are you writing to ask for information about the recipient's research, as in a request for data or a journal article? Do you want to study with the recipient as a student, or perhaps work for him or her as a postdoctoral researcher? Having clear answers to questions like these will help you draft a specific, focused e-mail. You should know exactly what you want and from whom you want it before you sit down to write.

Questions about audience and purpose will help you determine the appropriate tone to use in your message. E-mail is convenient, but it cannot convey the same subtleties you can convey in person, and many misunderstandings may occur as a result. When you talk to people face-to-face, you can show respect through your voice and body language. You might talk louder and faster if you are excited, and you might show your approval by listening attentively, nodding, or smiling. Because you cannot do that in written communication, you must instead use language and tone carefully to convey your meaning to the recipient.

Be especially careful with your tone if you are writing to someone who is not at the same professional level or status as you are. If you are writing to someone who holds the same status as you — for instance, if you are a student writing to another student, or if you are a scientist writing to another scientist of equal rank at your organization

— you might be able to assume some level of familiarity. In contrast, if you are writing to someone who holds a position of authority, use language that is respectful and polite, even if you are writing to express disagreement. Likewise, if you hope that

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the recipient of your e-mail will help you with a problem or grant you a request, be respectful (without seeming to beg and without flattery) and acknowledge his or her time.

Establishing a respectful tone

Being careless with your tone can lead to misunderstandings or cause offense to your reader. Because e-mail is a quick way of communicating, people often make the mistake of being too casual with their audience. Many scientists are informal once they have established a good relationship with a colleague, but do not automatically assume that you can be casual in your own e-mail. Instead, be formal until the person you are writing to indicates through his or her own language that familiarity is appropriate.

As you aim for a respectful tone, take care not to flatter your correspondent unnecessarily or use language that is too deferential. Some readers may be uncomfortable with flattery, or they may not know how to respond gracefully when someone they do not know compliments them heavily. Be careful with your salutation, too. Greetings such as "Dear Esteemed Sir" may be common in some countries, but the simpler "Dear Sir" or "Dear Professor" is more direct.

The following is an example of an e-mail that uses flattery:

Dear Esteemed Sir,

I very much enjoyed your recent paper in the Journal of Bacteriology. Your results were impressive, and your methods were very solid. I have worked with P. aeruginosa in my Ph.D. research as well, and I would like to continue working in this area under your knowledgeable guidance. Would you kindly tell me whether you have any postdoctoral positions available in your highly regarded laboratory?

Thank you for your time,

Pierre Raskolnikov

In contrast, this e-mail asks the same question and also pays the recipient a compliment, but it does so without flattery:

Dear Sir,

I enjoyed your recent paper in the Journal of Bacteriology. I have worked with P. aeruginosa in my Ph.D. research as well, and I would like to continue working in this area under your guidance. Would you please tell me whether you have any postdoctoral positions available in your laboratory?

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Thank you for your time,

Pierre Raskolnikov

Because your e-mails should be formal until you know the recipient well, do not use the kind of abbreviated language that is common in text or SMS messages. Instead of writing "cld i talk 2 u?", for example, use full sentences: "Could I talk to you?" Likewise, avoid trying to be funny when you are building a new relationship. Humor is difficult to convey in e-mail, and readers may misunderstand your meaning. Do not use emoticons — faces made out of punctuation marks, like :^) or :^( — to show that you are being friendly or witty. Instead, craft your tone and language carefully to convey the message you want to send.

E-mailing a peer

Pay careful attention to tone in every e-mail you send — even when writing a message to a fellow student. In most cases, you can adopt an informal tone when writing to a peer. Consider the following example, in which one student is e-mailing another student in his lab to ask about a piece of equipment.

From: Stefan Kovič

Subject: Gel box?

Date: March 29, 2010 2:44:19 PM CDT

To: Heather Wrench

Heather: Do you know what’s up with the gel box? The leads aren’t staying in anymore.

What should I do?

Thanks,

Stefan

Here, the subject line is brief. It notes only that the message is about the gel box — a piece of equipment used in molecular biology — but it does not specify the contents of the e-mail. The tone of the e-mail itself is informal. The message contains only a brief salutation that identifies Heather by her name and not a title or honorific, and the language is casual and colloquial. Stefan's question uses the more familiar "what's up with" rather than "what is wrong with" to ask about the condition of the equipment. The subject line and the casual tone of the message are appropriate for an e-mail sent between two students.