Preview
Despite the fact that this assignment was called “Writing Emails”, it does not mean that I wrote an email. Rather, we looked at given articles that discussed how to write professional emails. The assignment, per the professor’s words:
“You should choose at least two assigned texts (for example, an article and a section of the textbook or two articles, depending on the module) and discuss them by considering the major points of each text, as well as by comparing them. Be sure to note intersections between the texts, and indicate on what ideas they diverge. Consider what the authors would say to one another about the topic of email if they were communicating directly. What would they agree on? What would they challenge? How do their approaches to the same or similar topics differ? How do their goals align or not? How do audience and purpose compare? Be sure to answer this final question as well: what knowledge is created by putting these texts in conversation with one another–what do you learn from this?“
Completed Assignment
Starting with “The Essential Guide to Crafting a Work Email” by Gretchen Gavett, the article seems to be a basic rundown of the do’s and don’t of emailing along with how to be sure your email can “stand out in an inbox full of acronyms, fragments, and misspellings.” Some of the main things Gavett is sure to discuss is the actual text in the email, length, timing, and recipients. The article being compared to Gavett’s is the article “How to Make Sure Your Emails Give the Right Impression” by Shani Harmon, who has similarities and differences.
Gavett and Harmon both agree that emails being far too long are a big thing to avoid. Gavett makes the points of “visually highlighting key messages” and to “get to the point quickly.” Harmon points out that the attention span for most humans is only “eight seconds”, making that portion of the article agree with Gavett. The only real slight difference between the two when it comes to recipients is that Gavett puts more detail into emails sent to groups of people under different circumstances (bad news, not knowing how to respond to an email, if you’re emailing a higher up, etc). Harmon focuses more on not hiding the “important message” within the emails you send. By putting both of these articles together, we have a better understanding of the actual “meat” of the email that you are sending and who exactly to send the email to under what circumstances. Both benefit from each other based off of what the other focused on.
Ink and Crystals 