{"id":1873,"date":"2015-06-12T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1873"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:46","slug":"making-email-contact-with-a-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/making-email-contact-with-a-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Email Contact with a University"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Making<\/p>\n

If you are considering going to an English speaking university, you\u2019ve probably been practicing your academic writing. Academic writing, the kind of writing you need to do on the TOEFL and other entrance exams, is formal and complex. But for many university applicants, academic writing is not the only<\/em> writing they need to do.<\/p>\n

During the university application process, email writing skills can be as important as academic writing skills. Often, choosing the right university<\/a> and getting accepted requires the student to email university administrators and teachers.<\/p>\n

Emails are generally less formal than academic writing. Sometimes they can be much<\/em> less formal, with sentence structure and vocabulary this is more like spoken English than written English. This can even be true when you are emailing university staff and professors.<\/p>\n

Be careful though. If you are making the first contact, emailing the university before the email you, it\u2019s best not to be too<\/em> informal. You don\u2019t want to seem disrespectful. It\u2019s also important to seem serious about getting accepted.<\/p>\n

If you are starting an email conversation with a university, use the formal features of letter writing<\/em>, not academic writing. Have a formal greeting. Use complete sentences, but don\u2019t make them as long and complex as academic sentences. Group your sentences into clearly organized paragraphs. At the end of the email, use a formal sign-off word or phrase such as \u201ccordially\u201d or \u201csincerely.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help you understand what to do and what not to do when you make email contact with a university, here are three different versions of the same email. The emails are written to a director of admissions for an American university.<\/p>\n

Email Version 1 (too informal):<\/h2>\n