I receive many emails. Unfortunately, a lot of them are poorly-written. Often students mean well, and are otherwise respectful of (my) time, but they simply have had no training on writing emails, and no one has sat them down to explain how to do email. This post is a means to fill that gap.

How to address your recepient: If you know the name of the receipient, use it! Do not start with “Respected Sir/Madam”. There are many problems with this opening: (i) there are more than two genders; (ii) the opening is generic and insipid. I have seen people begin this way even when they know the specific receipient (we have been naming fellow homo sapiens for a reason). If you genuinely do not know the recepient, you can be (at least) gender-neutral and (somewhat) specific, e.g., “Dear Officer”, or “Dear Student”. The next worse start could be to greet your recepient “Good Morning” or “Evening”, this assumes that they see your email at a specific time and are in the same time zone. Plus, it serves no purpose.

This is still work in progress, will add more here.