Write It Right: A Presentation of Learning on Email Communication

Most people under the age of 16 think that email is for old people—a communication technology on par with Blackberrys, pagers, rotary phones, telegrams, and Morse code. As folks get older, however, they realize how crucial email can be in communicating effectively with high school teachers, college professors, hiring managers, internship programs, etc., and how a poorly written email could cost them teacher respect, potential employment, or a spot in a really cool internship.

Last fall, iLEAD Exploration Educational Facilitator (EF) Summer Cox offered a project-based learning (PBL) class that addressed this very issue. It was titled “Write It Right” and was a synchronous instructional time course offering for iLEAD Exploration learners in grades 9-12. The 30-minute class lasted six consecutive Thursdays and focused on this guiding question: “How can I communicate like a pro in academics and beyond?” As is typical in PBL, the class involved learner ownership and independent thinking and first encouraged learners to consider why they should care about how they portray themselves in email communications.

Some types of email messages learners explored were as follows:

• Request for Recommendation
• Interview Follow-Up
• Internship Request
• Job Application Note
• College Inquiry

As part of their final project, each learner wrote at least five emails for use in educational and professional settings. The class used breakout rooms to elicit peer feedback for fine-tuning their work. The course’s final presentation of learning involved each learner presenting their portfolio and sharing their favorite email.

Together, the class created a handy slide presentation filled with examples, templates, and ideas for each learner to keep for future use. All participants reported that the course was helpful in improving their professional and educational email communication skills.

Write it Right: Work Sample by Ethan Ma

Write it Right: Work Sample by Ian Ma

Learner Created Slide Show