PROFESSIONAL & BUSINESS WRITING Sarah Ziebell, Information Resource Officer, U.S. Embassy

Business s  Best practices  Subject line should give people the reason to open the  Subject line should be no longer than 50 characters  communications should be brief  Be polite (greeting, closing, communicating throughout)  Information should be clearly presented  If you are asking for something, put that information first  If you really need to know, repeat your “ask” at the end  Refrain from uncommon fonts, colors, italics, excessive emoticons, long quotes

10 reasons that s are too long  You don’t know what you are trying to say  You don’t know what you are talking about  Your signature is unnecessary  You are writing a book  You are spamming  You are rambling  You are forwarding a mess  It shouldn’t be an  It should be multiple s  You don’t edit your s

Cover letters  Best practices  Targeted at the position at hand  Personalized as much as possible  Clear and formal writing style  As brief as possible  Positive tone  Show you know something about the organization and explain why you fit  Match your skills to the job requirements  Avoid sounding overconfident  Refrain from uncommon fonts, colors, italics, excessive emoticons, long quotes

Bad cover letter examples from Business InsiderBusiness Insider

Personal statements  Best practices  Tell the story of you  Explain your reasons for wanting to study the course  Explain how you’re right for the course  Say what you’ve done outside of the classroom  And why that’s relevant to the course  And to your later career  Talk about your transferrable skills (teamwork, leadership, listening skills, etc.)  And give an example of 1-2 of the most relevant from your ife  Show you’re a crtiical thinker  Talk about your long-term plan  Keep the tone positive

Exercise: Skills, interests, ambitions

Skills, interests, ambitions  Skills: What do you do really well? What do you practice in your free time? What would someone say you’re best at? What is something you’ve taught yourself to do?  Interests: What are you interested in? Break these down! What aspects of those interests do you like the most? List them, along with the reasons you like them.  Ambitions: What do you want to achieve? Ideally, where do you see yourself in five years? What steps would you need to take to get there? How do you want to change the world?

THANK YOU! Sarah Ziebell, Information Resource Officer, U.S. Embassy