One of the initial steps in your research journey is - Approaching a Professor for a Research Project. How do you do that? You send an EMAIL!
A well-written email not only puts forward your motivation and interests but also forms the professor’s first impression of you. Note the following key characteristics of any email in general:
Clarity and Conciseness
Informative Subject Line
Positive Tone and Proper Flow
Proper Formatting
In an Academic email, the most important points to highlight with utmost clarity are:
Your Specific Interests
Your Background (Prior Connection with the Professor, if any)
Your Motivation and Future Goals
Most importantly, your email must be able to answer how these aspects link to the professor’s work. Therefore, you will need to do a little groundwork:
Choosing a Professor: Carefully investigate the “current” research interests and projects of relevant professors (on the Department Site/their web pages) and correlate them with your experience and interests.
Check whether the Professor is willing to take in undergraduate researchers at the moment or not. If the professor mentions not to mail them requesting projects, do NOT.
On the contrary, if they mention any specific way to contact them for projects, follow that.
Check for “Present Projects” on the professor’s website and match them with your interests.
You can also check the professor’s Google Scholar page by going through their most recent publications to find out if something intrigues you.
Salutation: Be formal (Do not write Hi Prof. X or Hello Prof. X). Use Dear Prof. X (or) Greetings Prof. X. Only use the professor’s last name (or) their full name.
Introduce yourself: State your name, department, and the semester you are currently enrolled in.
Body of the Email: Condense!
Identify and Express your specific interest(s) in the email. Back up your interests with your current (or past) coursework/projects. Mention the relevance of your interests to the professor's recent research.
DO State any prior connection between you and the professor.
It is good to mention crucial takeaways from your experience or what piqued your interest in the subject matter.
Include the professor’s relevant work/publications that you have read and found interesting. Specifically, mention the relevant areas you would like to work in through your research project.
If you have no prior experience in the subject and want to get started with it, put forward your eagerness to learn the topics and request the professor for relevant literature to study before starting your work.
Mention any other commitments that you have (or will have) apart from coursework. Make a compelling statement about how your schedule allows you space for taking up a research project and putting in the required hours per week.
End the email positively, showing your willingness and motivation to undertake a project. Here, mention how the project will aid your short-term and/or long-term goals.
Attach your up-to-date résumé/CV for the professor’s reference.
Suitably format all the above information into separate paragraphs for better readability.
Most importantly, be honest! Professors do not expect you to know everything.
Use spell- and grammar-check tools like Grammarly.
Proofread the Email: Read the email a couple of times and make changes where necessary to improve the flow or wording. Delete any redundant information which you might have repeated. Remember that simple and lucid sentences are better than convoluted sentences with a fancy vocabulary.
Sign the Email: Make sure you sign the email with all your basic essential information.
After sending the email, wait for 2-3 working days before sending any reminders. Keep the reminders short (“Dear Prof. X, Eagerly awaiting your response.” is sufficient).
Further Reading/References:
https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/eecs/commkit/email/
https://writing.caltech.edu/resources
https://www.cmu.edu/student-success/other-resources/resource-descriptions/email-communication.html
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