During this past couple of months of quarantine schooling, my writing habits have improved tremendously. My sessions of time behind a computer have gotten much longer, and the amount of typing I've had to do doesn't even come close to my previous semester.
I've recently just started a dramatic writing class for Maymester, in which I find myself writing in ways I haven't before such as scenes, character dialogue, etc. But there's one type of writing that I've probably done more of than writing for class and Odyssey and maybe even texting combined...emails.
Reaching out to and having back and forth email exchanges with teachers, advisors, coordinators, and tutors so often since the pandemic has really made me look at the way I compose my emails. I've never seen myself as a poor email writer, in fact, I think I've always been pretty good at writing formal emails when necessary. Sending so many emails in such a short period of time has served to augment that ability.
The application called Grammarly has been a lifesaver when writing anything. It provides helpful corrections and explanations, all while making your writing read better. It can even detect the tone of what you're typing.
Something I've learned without the help of writing apps is how to write to specific people. If you can cater your emails to the person you are sending them to, whether it's by knowing their personality, analyzing how they compose their emails to you and what they say in them, how they frame things and structure sentences, you can write an email that resonates more with the recipient. It may seem obvious, but you wouldn't want to write an email to your professor the same way you may write one to your tutor, though they both might be in a professional tone.
As this world of social distancing continues to push on, in some places more than others, emails are being sent probably more often than ever before. Any way you can make your emails stand out or get the attention of whoever you are writing to is a super important skill. In the type of society we currently find ourselves living in, you can make just as good of a first impression digitally through a well-crafted email as you can by meeting someone and dressing/acting professionally. Though some are better than others at each option, the latter one has somewhat come to a halt due to COVID-19, which goes to show that digital first impressions are now most likely just as important as physical ones.
