Writing professional letters – has technological development changed the rules?

FOR those Generation Alphas, Generation Zs or even Millenials, writing a letter isn’t an art that you have practised much, if at all. Maybe you wrote to a friend you met at a camp or a penpal exchange, but that was probably a rare occasion. For the older generations, writing a letter on decorative paper, sealing it in a matching envelope and sending it overseas, or maybe locally, was a real treat – as well as waiting for the reply.

Today, emails, and maybe sites like LinkedIn, are used for professional communication, and personal communication can be sent through so many avenues – emails, DMs on Instagram and TikTok, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Discord, dating or friendship sites like Bumble, Tinder, Boo, Plenty of Fish – the list is endless.

Also read: Educators share five tips to better exam results

For young people nowadays, you may still need to write a cover letter when applying for a job. Or even just a professional email. But how do you go about doing that? Do we still use the same formatting as we did decades ago? How do we word the letter, start it and end it? These are questions that many people have. Has technology changed the letter? If so, how?

What about penpals? Do they still exist? In fact, yes. You can find penpals on sites like Interpals (https://www.interpals.net/) or the Lettre or Slowly app.

Writing a professional email

Writing an email professionally can make or break your job application, help you obtain that longed-for sale or build professional networks and clients, among other things. Here are some important points to consider:

1. Address the letter to the right person. Make sure you add the person’s name and email address correctly. Nowadays, it’s mostly acceptable to use a person’s first name in addressing them. If you don’t know their name, you can still put ‘To Whom It May Concern’ or a general designation such as ‘Dear Editor’. Using ‘Dear’ and their name is better than ‘Hi’ unless you already know the person and have developed a comfortable professional relationship with them.

In that regard, letter-writing hasn’t changed much since the old days when we had to address the person and give a title to the letter. One thing we no longer have to do in an email is add our physical address, their physical address and the date. They will automatically see the sender’s email address and the date the email was sent.

2. Type up a professional title

Your title should be brief and summarise what the email is about. This goes in the subject line of the email program. Examples are: ‘Application for the Position of Personal Assistant’ or ‘Regarding the Meeting on [date]’. Use headline case, (ie, capitalising all words except for adverbs that are lower than three letters and articles like ‘the’ and ‘a’).

3. Organise the body of your email

Make sure you have a brief introduction. Introduce yourself and the subject. Then, you would add the body of the email – what you wish to communicate, and you’d end with a thank you at the end. For example, ‘Thank you for your consideration,’ or ‘Thank you for assistance in this regard’. Don’t make the body too long or fill it with overly long paragraphs.

Also read: Fabulous reads: Exposing little city slickers to farm life

4. Close off the email

You still need to add a closing greeting to your email as you would a letter. Nowadays, you can use simple endings that are still professional, such as:
Sincerely,
Take care,
Respectfully,
Thank you,
With appreciation,
It’s better to add a comma after the starting and ending greetings for clarity, and it seems like they are doing that now in the UK, which we base our English on. Nowadays, we don’t use flowery end greetings like ‘Yours sincerely’ or ‘Yours faithfully’.

Below the closing greeting, you should add a professional email signature, which you can add through your mail program like Gmail or Outlook Mail. That would contain your name and current designation/role in a company – if you have one.

Writing a cover letter

There are conflicting views on this. Some job sites say that you no longer need to put your physical address but just a header with your full name and contact details like email address and cellphone number. But according to the Department of Labour, it is preferable to use the old way with your address in full on the right, including your email address and cellphone number, and the date below that – all right-aligned.

What is a cover letter? It’s usually a letter you write to apply for a job. It would explain why you are interested in the position and describe your skills and experience and how they would be of benefit to the company you are applying to. This letter is usually done in Microsoft Word and attached to the email with your CV/resume. Some companies don’t require a separate cover letter and you can just add that information in the body of the email. But if they do require one, you want to make sure it looks professional.

1. If you wish to, you can just add a header with your name and contact information, ie, full name, email address and cellphone number. You could even make it look professional like the header of a company’s header paper or the top of your CV. Keep this left-justified if you write it normally, that is, without a fancy header. If you’re concerned and wish to stick to the Department of Labour’s recommendations, write your name, address and contact details at the top and right-aligned. Then, below that, type in the full name, designation and address of the person the letter is addressed to.

2. Add a professional greeting. If you don’t know the person’s name, you could say ‘Dear Hiring Professional’. Definitely use ‘Dear’ in the greeting.

3. Add a title as you would do for a professional email, stating what job you are applying for – the name of the job as written in the job advert.

4. Type in the body of your letter, making sure you introduce yourself and what you are applying for in the introduction paragraph, explain your skills and experiences in the body and conclude with a summary and special last note on what you can offer. Keep paragraphs short.

5. Thank the professional hirer for the opportunity to apply for the position or for considering you for the position.

Also read: Two-Pot Retirement System explained

6. End with an ending greeting with your full name on the next line. You can add in a digital signature between the greeting and your name if you have one. Commas are used after both ending and starting greetings. You may use a more old-fashioned end greeting like ‘Yours sincerely’ or ‘Kind regards’, but I believe it’s acceptable to use shorter versions like ‘Sincerely’.

It seems that professional communication with the advent of the digital age hasn’t changed drastically. You still need to take a professional stance when compiling an email or cover letter, especially when applying for something.

Last but not least, remember to use some proofreading software to check your work before you hit send. Grammarly’s free version is great. Word’s spellcheck can be problematic, but if it’s all you have access to, then it’s better than nothing. If you’re using AI to compile a professional letter, make sure you change the wording. If it is discovered that you’ve used AI, your application may be rejected. I would steer clear of using it altogether, but if you can significantly change the wording, it may be of great use to you.

For more from Berea Mail, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok.

Click to subscribe to our newsletter – here