Professional Communication

I'm going to be so real with you, I scoured the internet for guides on how to teach this but didn't find much that I felt was relevant or useful. For me, this was just intuitive but I'll explain as best I can. So I'm just going to give you some tips/examples :D

The most common form of professional communication is generally the email. The first part of an email is the greeting. Actually, the first part is a subject line but I suck at those; generally you want to summarize what the email is about in the fewest words possible but anyways.. The first part is the greeting. A simple "hello" works but I like to use "Good morning/afternoon/evening" for extra flavor. Always address someone using their formal title, whether it's dr, mr/ms, professor, etc. If it's to an unknown recipient, you can address it "To whom it may concern".

Another thing to consider is the time that the email is being sent. It doesn't look good if you're sending an employer/potential employer at 2:30am. Make sure that you're sending messages at appropriate times or schedule them to be send at an appropriate time. I would use 7am-9pm time frame as a general rule.

When emailing, you want to be polite but concise. Get to the point of your email and cut out any extra fluff. Be clear on why you're emailing and what you need from the recipient. You never want the recipient to look at your email and think "what am I supposed to do with this".

The final part of the email is your sign off. You'll want to end emails with some sort of sign off like "best", "regards", though personally, I like to use "thank you" so that it doesn't sound overly formal, depending on who I'm emailing or if I'm making a request.

Here is an example of a bad email to a potential employer:

"Hi,

I'm Kelis. Here is my resume for xyz position."

It should look more like this:

"Good [morning/afternoon/evening] OR To whom it may concern,

My name is Kelis Nunez and I am interested in xyz position. Attached please find my resume. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Kelis Nunez"

That email has a proper greeting, states who you are and why you're emailing, and includes a sign-off.

Outside of work

Professional communication should also be used (although much less formally) when conversing with service providers, this includes people like hair stylists, tattoo artists, mechanic, etc. You don't need to use an email style format but you should keep things clear, concise, and polite.

Generally, when reaching out, a message should include a greeting, compliment their work (if it's like an art form or something), describe what you have in mind (and sending pictures, if applicable), then ask about their availability.

If you're reaching out to someone via a DM, you can be less formal. But if, for example, you're emailing a mechanic, you'd want to be a tad more formal. You kinda have to read the room as far as formality goes, like the message you send to a tattoo artist will be less formal than what you'd say to a mechanic. Here's an example of what you might message a mechanic:

"Hello,

I have a [insert year, make, and model of your car] and I need [describe what service you need done]. Would you be able to provide a quote for that?

Thank you!"

I think that's about the best I can explain for now. You'll likely still need help drafting some messages but this should be a good starting point and you'll get better at it the more that you do it!