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When you are communicating with professors, mentors, peers, or academics who are in a supervisory position, you can see what tone they set in emails and use a similar or slightly more formal style and level of formality. If you have a supervisory role, you will likely be expected to set the tone.  \nGreetings  \nIf you are sending an email to a new contact, such as someone you have not met in person, or a new professor, supervisor, or mentor, use a formal greeting. Also, use the most formal title the recipient has. For example, if the recipient has a Ph.D . and is a professor, use Prof. or Dr. in the greeting.  \nA formal greeting: Dear + {Mr./Ms./Dr./Prof. } + [Last Name]  \nWith friends, colleagues you work with regularly, and professors who have used these informal greetings with you, use an informal greeting: ³Hi/Hello [First Name]´ . If you are sending an email to a new contact, a professor, supervisor, or mentor, first use a formal greeting, such as ³Dear Prof. [Last Name]´ . Then, see how they sign their name in their reply and use that in your next email. For example, if they sign the reply with their first name, you can start your next email with ³Hello [First Name]´ .  \nIf you are emailing back and forth with the same person, you may begin to leave out the greetings and closing lines. At that point in the exchange, you and the recipient know who is emailing, and the conversational nature of the longer email chain does not require greetings or closing lines. In this case, the email signature block is enough.  \nWord Choice  \nEmails cannot include your body language or intonation: they are only written words. Therefore, the significance of your word choices is magnified. At first, emails sent to new contacts will use more academic and formal word choices. As email exchanges continue, and as you get to know the recipient better, see how their use of language shifts and you can follow their lead. Over time you may notice that their word choices become more casual, and you can mirror their language use. Below are three example sentences that mean the same thing but vary in formality:  \nx ³Thank \\RX fRU your patience as we coordinate the details.´ (Formal)  \nx ³ThankV fRU waiting while we work out the details.´ (Informal: sent to a professor, supervisor, or mentor)  \nx ³ThankV fRU hanging in there while we figure out the details.´ (Informal: sent to a peer)  \nThe informal examples use more idiomatic language and phrasal verbs common to spoken exchanges, while the formal example has a single-word verb that is more scholarly. These changes have been highlighted for you. Also, notice that the language sent to the supervisor is slightly more formal than the email sent to the peer.  \nThe Vanderbilt University English Language Center  updated November 12, 2019  \n2  \nSentence Structure  \nWhen emails are formal, you will be expected to use full sentences with more complex structures like you would often see in an academic writing setting. However, after several emails are exchanged, and as you work more closely with the recipient, you may start to see reduced sentence structures and more casual language. The email on the left is a sample of a first email, and the email on the right is a sample after four emails have been exchanged with the group.  \nAs you read these examples, notice:  \nx Whe XVe Rf fRUmal ShUaVing in Whe fiUVW email VXch aV, ³in lighW RfWhe infRUmaWiRn Ze gained.´  \nx the first email uses a greeting and closing, but the fourth email does not because everyone knows who is writing.  \nx the fourth email contains reduced sentence structures (for example, there is no subject in the sentence) .  \nx Whe mRUe caVXal langXage chRiceV in Whe fRXUWh email VXch aV, ³VRXndV","cbCaimvE6MIYiSVc","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimvE6MIYiSVc","pdf",425956,"English","# Greetings\n# Word Choice\n# Sentence Structure\n# Summary","[{\"question\":\"How should you choose a greeting when emailing a new contact on campus?\",\"answer\":\"Use a formal greeting and the most formal title the recipient has, such as Dr. or Prof., followed by their last name.\"},{\"question\":\"What should you do with greetings and closing lines after emailing the same person repeatedly?\",\"answer\":\"You can leave out greetings and closing lines because both sides know who is emailing; the email signature block is often enough.\"},{\"question\":\"How does word choice and sentence structure change as an email exchange continues?\",\"answer\":\"Word choice may become more casual and idiomatic as you learn the recipient’s style, and sentence structures may become reduced and more informal after several emails.\"}]","Email Messages Guide - Reading Cues for Shifting Tone | PDF"]