Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Create a Good First Impression
• Part 2 of 3: Prepare the body of your letter
• Part 3 of 3: Complete the letter
• Tips

Writing to a teacher, as opposed to a letter or text message to a friend, requires a more thorough approach. The vocational training phase is the beginning of your professional career, so you need to treat all types of communication with the appropriate professionalism, including emails. For example, it is recommended that you use your internal school email account (if available) and be sure to start your email with a formal greeting. The email to your style teacher should resemble a classic business letter. Its text should be short and correct in terms of spelling, grammar and punctuation!

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Create a Good First Impression

1. 1 First, check the content of your synopsis to find answers to your questions. Often, the answers to the questions you want to ask are already contained in the materials that the teacher gave you at the very beginning of the class. If you ask the teacher to return to the already voiced things again, you can create the impression of a frivolous student and upset the teacher by wasting time on you.
   • The synopsis may contain information about the distribution of the topics of coursework, the timing of their preparation, formatting requirements and general norms of behavior in lectures and practical exercises.
   • If the teacher only gave you a list of books for self-study, then there is nothing wrong with asking him questions on the subject that are not answered in the synopsis.
2. 2 Use your school's internal email address (if available). Teachers receive many emails every day. If you decide to use your internal account at the school, then the letter will have a better chance of not getting into spam. It also makes your letter look more professional. Also, it will be easy for the teacher to understand who exactly is writing him the letter, since accounts in educational institutions are usually based on the person's last name and first name or his initials.
3. 3 Create a clear heading in the subject line. The subject line of the letter will give the teacher a hint of what the letter itself will be about, even before he opens it. This can be quite useful, as it may take a person a while to pay attention to this particular topic. Make sure that the subject line of your letter is clear and accurately reflects its essence.
   • For example, you can specify in the subject a phrase such as: "Question on the current assignment", - or: "Final essay".
4. 4 Start your letter by greeting and addressing the teacher by name and patronymic. You may be anxious to start right away with your question. However, remember that you are writing to a teacher, so your writing should be more like a business letter in style. For example, start with the address "Dear Petr Ivanovich," and do not forget to put a comma at the end of this line.You can also contact the teacher even more formally, indicating the academic degree (doctor) or title (professor), or simply the address "Dear sir (s)" and surname.
   • If you are not sure whether the teacher has an academic degree or title, for a formal address it is better to use the words "Dear sir (s)" and surnames.
   • Nevertheless, when you are already personally acquainted with the teacher, it is customary to use a less formal address by name and patronymic, for example, like this: "Hello, Peter Ivanovich!"

Part 2 of 3: Prepare the body of your letter

1. 1 Remind the teacher of yourself. Teachers have too many students to remember them all at once, so it doesn't hurt to remind you of yourself. Indicate your first and last name, as well as the group in which you study, and the name of the subject, for example: "You are worried about Andrey Belyaev from the PM-1 group, where you teach economics."
2. 2 Ask questions to the point. Teachers are very busy people, so there is no need to distract from the main topic in the letter. State what you need as briefly as possible, omitting unnecessary details.
   • For example, if you have homework questions, go straight to the point: "I have a question about the homework you gave us last Tuesday. Can we work in groups or just individually?"
3. 3 Write in full sentences. Your letter is not a post on a social network or an SMS to a friend. This means that when you speak to the teacher, you should use the full sentences, as everything else will look just unprofessional.
   • For example, you shouldn't write: "Awesome lesson ... super!"
   • Instead, write, "Your last lecture was very informative."
4. 4 Pay attention to the tone of the letter. When you first write to a teacher, make sure your tone and style are professional. This means a complete rejection of emotions! When the correspondence with the teacher becomes more or less settled during the semester, you can relax a little. This is acceptable if the teacher himself admits a less formal style of communication (for example, uses emoticons in letters to you).
5. 5 Make requests politely. Many students try to demand something from their teachers. This is a dead-end approach. Instead, structure your phrases as requests that the instructor can or cannot satisfy.
   • For example, you might want to get a term paper deferral. Don't say: "My grandmother died, give me a reprieve for my coursework." Better write: "I had a difficult week because of the death of my grandmother. Could you give me a little respite in the coursework?"
6. 6 Remember to use correct punctuation. In a letter to a friend, it is not scary to miss a comma or a period somewhere. However, when you write to your instructor, make sure that all punctuation marks are in place.
7. 7 Don't shorten the words. Despite the fact that verbal abbreviations have simply flooded the Internet, they have no place in professional letters. For example, don't use "d / s" instead of "homework" or "lab" instead of "lab". Use meaningful words.
   • Also, do not forget to run the text of the letter through a spell checker.
8. 8 Use capital letters appropriately. Words at the beginning of sentences must necessarily come with a capital letter, the same applies to proper names in the text of the letter. Don't go with selective capitalization. Use capital letters only where appropriate.

Part 3 of 3: Complete the letter

1. 1 Indicate what exactly you need from the teacher. Be sure to say exactly what you want from the teacher at the end or towards the end of the letter. For example, if you want his answer, say so. If you want to meet in person, please let me know too.
2. 2 Reread the letter to check your grammar. Go over the text of the letter for random grammatical errors. In most cases, you will definitely find one or two errors that should be corrected.
3. 3 Evaluate the letter from the instructor's point of view. Think carefully about the content of the letter so that there are no requirements in it. Make sure everything is as brief as possible. Also, you do not need to talk too much about your personal life, this is unprofessional.
4. 4 End the letter with a final courtesy formula. Just as you started with a formal greeting, you should also end it formally. Use phrases such as "Regards," or "Best wishes," and remember to end with a comma and include your first and last name on the line below.
5. 5 Remind yourself a week later if you still don't get an answer. After sending the letter, do not bother the teacher once again while waiting for an answer. Nevertheless, if the answer does not come within a week, you can try to write again, since the first letter could be lost somewhere.
6. 6 Confirm receipt of the answer. When you receive an answer, let the teacher know about it. A simple "Thank you!" usually enough. If necessary, expand your letter a little using the same guidelines to make it look professional. If your problem (or question) did not find an adequate answer in the teacher's letter, ask for a personal meeting.
   • For example, you might write, "Thank you for answering my question. See you in class!"
   • If you would like to ask for a personal meeting, write: "Thank you for your valuable reflections on my question. Could we meet in person to discuss everything in more detail?"

Tips

• Contact your classmates first if the purpose of your letter is simply to find out what you missed when you were absent from lectures or practice sessions.