{"id":5186,"date":"2016-10-11T12:24:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T23:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=5186"},"modified":"2016-10-11T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T23:24:07","slug":"making-professional-connections-via-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=5186","title":{"rendered":"Making professional connections via email"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine this scenario – you need information and you start to write a formal email but you don’t know the person or organisation to which you are writing. How do you approach and build rapport with people or groups you have never met before?<\/p>\n

I belong to a voluntary conservation group that has been active in my community for many years. We often receive requests from research students wanting assistance with their project or research. Occasionally these requests are not warmly received because the tone of the email may be unprofessional and background information may be lacking. In addition, the members are usually volunteers and it takes time and energy to respond. If the email is not clear and precise it may be put into the \u201ctoo hard basket\u201d or worse still, immediately deleted. Here are some tips which will hopefully make it easier for you to make a great first connection via email.<\/p>\n

\"Emails\"<\/a>\u201cPiled Higher and Deeper\u201d by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com<\/p>\n

Hopefully, writing an email to an organisation is less threatening than writing to your supervisor!<\/p>\n

Greetings
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Firstly, you must use an appropriate greeting, especially if this is your first<\/strong> point of contact. I would tend to keep it more formal in the first instance e.g. “Dear”, “Good morning”, or “T\u0113n\u0101 koutou” (3 or more people) instead of \u201chi\u201d. This sets a respectful tone for the email.<\/p>\n

Signing off an email can become a dilemma \u2013 formal or informal.\u00a0 Again I would stick to a slightly more formal salutation if this is your first contact with the person or group e.g. \u201cYours sincerely\u201d (in M\u0101ori “N\u0101ku iti noa, n\u0101\u201d) or ” Yours faithfully” (\u201cN\u0101ku, n\u0101”).<\/p>\n

Structuring an email<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Just like an essay, your email needs some structure and basic information. Here are some pieces of information to include:<\/p>\n