For our next assignment, we will practice with one function of correspondence, inquiry, and one form, the email. For this assignment, compose an email to someone who has a job in your desired career field, and ask them if they’d be available for an interview by phone or email about their job.
You may use any email account you own, whether it is your Lindenwood email account or another one.
- First, find the email address of someone (maybe a friend, family member, classmate, or co-worker) who has a job in your desired career field. You may already know this person, or it may be someone you’ve never met. Consider looking at the websites of businesses or organizations that you’d like to work for to find someone.
- Then, once you’ve found that email address, put it in the To: field of a new email message.
- Put my email address, efleitz@lindenwood.edu, in the CC: field.
- Compose a helpful, descriptive title for your email in the Subject: field. If someone only had time to look at the subject line, would they understand what the email is about?
- In the body of your email, use the following paragraph outline. You’ll want to use an indirect approach here since you need to explain yourself before you ask them for a favor:
- Dear [name]:
- Paragraph 1: Briefly introduce yourself. Explain that you are interested in getting a job in their career field upon graduation.
- Paragraph 2: Ask if they would be available for an interview about their job at their convenience in the next couple of weeks. Provide the option of either a phone call or email for the interview. Mention that this interview is an assignment for ENGL 230.
- Last paragraph: Ask them to please let you know if they would be available for an interview. End on a note of goodwill (“I hope to hear from you soon” or something similar).
- Include an ending salutation (“Sincerely,”), your name, and a signature block.
- Screenshot the email and upload that screenshot to this Canvas assignment forum.
- Send the email and wait for a response. (We’ll complete these interviews and turn in their responses in an assignment for Week 6.)
Good Luck! (When your interviewee responds back, you can skip right ahead to Week 6’s Sunday Night assignment and get that done early.)