Email Writing Guidelines

Two notes before I start:

1. This post is essentially for the students who want some tips on clearing the email writing section companies like TCS.  (I am not saying that this post is not helpful for others! :)

2. This is not an English grammar guide and/or email writing guide which can be mugged up. There are some guidelines, which can be followed (if you are willing)

Happy Reading! :)

You are a criminal if you start banging the keyboard immediately after reading the keywords! Save both, the keyboard and yourself, by taking a minute before you start writing the email!

Please spend a minute to read the keywords, visualize the overall scenario and draft a rough email outline in your mind (in your mother tongue). Following questions can help  you do this: Who is the recipient? Who is the sender? What is the purpose of the email? What is expected from the recipient? What is expected from the sender? What is the tone of the email?

Your mind is now ready with the rough email in your mother tongue. Start typing the final email in English. Below are some ‘General Guidelines’ and ‘Frequently Committed Mistakes’ to clear the TCS Email writing section with ease:

General Guidelines

 Opening the  email:

• The opening of the professional mail should start with a greeting to the client. Generally “Dear John” suits and in some cases “Hi John”. Avoid words like’ Respected’ and ‘Sir’ to be avoided.
• Preferably, you have to use their first name to address them and not their full name like “Dear Mr. John Smith”.
• Put a comma after you address the recipient and then you can start the email from the next line

Body/Content of the email:

• All the keywords from the problem statement should appear in your email. Preferably keep the sequence of the key words intact and make sure you don’t change the tense of the keywords
• The minimum or maximum word count is generally specified, needless to mention that it has to be followed. If not, please ensure that your word count reaches an optimum limit (around 80-100, depending upon the subject and number of keywords). 
• Avoid using unwanted information. Professional email should be short and crisp.
• I am mentioning some selected words which have alternate words, better and more professional. (Sorry – apologies, Unable to do – expecting a delay, Bad – improvements are expected/improvements can be made, working time – office hours, effect from – effective from). Using the alternate words can up your chances of getting through the email section.
• Try to mention the words frequently used in the corporate in your email (e.g., when your email is regarding some project, you can use : We, our team, our, offshore, on-site, office hours, downtime, client, apologies, glad, man hours, etc.
• Please ensure that you give a space after a full stop and the next letter is capitalized.
• I should always be capitalized (I), not 'i'
• Don’t forget to use articles like a, an, the,  etc. wherever necessary and appropriate
• Negative words should not be used openly and the same meaning should be covered under positive words.

Closing the email:

• Try to use the following sentences to close the email. (1) Kindly confirm the meeting (2) Please respond as early as possible (3) Looking forward for your participation/response (4) Hope you will follow the above points rigorously/meticulously (5) Please contact me in case of queries/ Feel free to contact me directly in case of doubts
• End your email with ‘Regards’. Put a comma and mention the sender’s name in the next line. Other options to close the email are Best Regards, Best Wishes, Warm Wishes, etc
• If specified, please ensure to use the sender's name as given in the question

Frequently Committed Mistakes:

1. 'Just' and 'Only'
Be selective while using the words ‘just’ and/or ‘only’. ‘Just’ doesn’t add any real meaning to the sentence and is used as a softener, to add flexibility and politeness. 'Only', on the other hand, is a relatively sharp exclusion. 'Just' also has a wider range of meanings, for instance to denote time.

2. 'Your' and 'You're'
It's the difference between owning something and actually being something
Correct Usage:
You made it around the track in under a minute -- you're fast!
How's your fast going? Are you hungry?

3. Its Vs. It's
"Its" is possessive and "it's" is a contraction of "it is."

4. Affect vs. Effect
When you're talking about the change itself -- the noun -- you'll use "effect."
For example: That movie had a great effect on me.
When you're talking about the act of changing -- the verb -- you'll use "affect."
For example: That movie affected me greatly.

5. Me vs. I
Most confusing words ever!
When you get done with that lab report, can you send it to Bill and I?
Nope, that's wrong. Please try taking Bill out of that sentence -- it sounds weird, right? You
would never ask someone to send something to "I" when he or she is done. The reason it sounds weird is because "I" is the object of that sentence -- and "I" should not be used in objects. In that situation, you'd use "me."

6. Do's and Don'ts
Note that the apostrophes aren't put in the same place in both words.

7. i.e. vs. e.g.
"i.e." roughly means "that is" or "in other words" while "e.g." means "example given" or "for
example." See the difference? One's used to clarify something you've said, while the other adds color to a story through an example.

8. peek vs. peak vs. pique
Peek is taking a quick look at something -- like a sneak peek.
Peak is a sharp point -- like the peak of a mountain.
Pique means to provoke or instigate -- you know, like your interest or feelings.

9. Alot vs. A lot vs. Allot 
"alot" is not a word. If you're trying to say that someone has a vast number of things, you'd say they have a lot of things.
Allot is used when you assign/give/dispense something, like allot money  

10. Who vs. That
When you're describing a person, be sure to use "who." When you're describing an object, use "that.
Examples:
“Rakesh is the one who likes to play cricket
"My mobile is something that overheats, all the time."

11. Into vs. In to
"into" indicates movement (Ginny walked into the office) while "in to" is used in lots of situations because the individual words "to" and "in" are frequently used in other parts of a sentence.
For example, "to" is often used with infinitive verbs (ex: to drive). Or "in" can be used as part of a verb (ex: call in to a meeting). So if you're trying to decide which to use, ask yourself whether
a) either "in" or "to" fits in with another part of the sentence, or 
b) the sentence indicates some sort of movement
If the answers are a) no, then b) yes - you should use into 

Email cautiously, get selected happily ( and Invite for a party, kindheartedly) :)

Best Luck!

Whatsapp- What’s up?

There is no doubt that the instant messaging application WhatsApp has become the rage today because it is so good to use. We can send texts, photos, videos and audio notes to each other at almost zero price (hardly a dollar); we can even create different chat groups and chat with many people in a same message box. All these advantages make WhatsApp become indispensable in our daily life. Some people have already stopped using traditional instant messaging function, which is normally preinstalled in every cell phone, using WhatsApp whenever they want to text their contacts instead.

But are we just ignoring its possible down shots?

Let me be clear: I have nothing against people who use WhatsApp, but I am very concerned about those who allow WhatsApp to use them!

In my profession I come across and interact with many students. I have been closely observing the effect of WhatsApp on a student’s life and I claim that the effect is more adverse and detrimental to one’s career.

Following are my observations:

1. Whatsapp Status:  Most important point worth noting is the WhatsApp 'Status' feature. It is so good that it creates a familiar environment. For Example: Neha is online but not yet responded, Ayan is always online and gives instant response, Arbaaz was last seen on 24/11/2012 at 2:00 AM, John status cannot be seen because he blocked me etc. These are the details which creates a great impact on mind. Even if you are not close to your WhatsApp contact, this virtual interaction has great impact than physical interaction.

2. Text, without feelings: Psychologically, the impact and imagination goes with text. A good text can create huge impact and similarly an irrational text can be disaster. The text becomes the sole means of emotion; you can easily hide your actual feeling and trick people.

3. Emoticons: One of the important feature of watsapp but has the potential to ruin one’s life! This is a grave issue, wherein the one reading at the other ends is hoaxed with texts and wrong emoticons. Imagine a scenario where person A is hanging out with his friends and in parallel, having a watsapp chat with person B. Person A is actually  laughing at the fullest and in parallel sends a crying smiley to person B. Now, visualize the signal sent across to person B and its consequence on the mind. Needless to explain it further.

4. Mobile Screen- our world: Here is another observation. In a party or any sort of gathering, if any of your friend is long sitting in corner operating his cell phone? Well, this is another major issue of this addictive messenger. The impacts are so powerful that users leave the real world interest, their entire emotion is restricted to the app, they get happy or sad depending on the reply they get from other users. WhatsApp users has serious addiction issue, they are hypnotized and controlled by other users. They are so into it that they cannot help themself without constantly chatting, replying and sharing all the time, regardless of the scenario.

5. Instant pleasure: The impacts are serious on regular day to day life. (at college or at work), it offers a pleasure that gives you nothing but constant dependency, you will keep on reading status, replying and sharing. If something goes out of proportion, you will keep fixing it entire day, this way it steals away your productive work and you end up lost your precious time, days and years.

6. Comprehension problems:  If we communicate primarily through the screen, we do not learn the subtleties of real life communication - such as body language, tone of voice, gestures, etc.

7. Instant messenger, instant depression:  After spending a lot of time on watsapp, some become anxious and moody. Also, a vulnerable person may suffer from depression when he reads great things happening to his friends, and his life is not so great in comparison, especially because news sharing is viral on watsapp. Those who experience "Watsapp depression" usually have trouble with social interactions in general.

I’ve been observing the above points for more than couple of years now and here are some free advises (especially for students):

1. Limit your use whatsapp use: Limiting your whatsapp usage to a defined time span will reduce your dependency on the app. Of course this is a personal judgment, around 30minutes in a day sounds fair enough (for a person who is already addicted)!

2. Offline when in college: Preferably, switch off the data connection of your mobile phone when in college. Highly unlikely that you will need a working data connection (for an email or any other purpose) and hence it is suggested that you remain offline. This will drastically increase your productivity when in college and reduce the disturbances caused due to frequent beeps/rings.

3. Cautious usage of emoticons/text: Don’t get bluffed by disastrous texts or false emoticons. This is a critical topic and one needs to be extra cautious in this regards.

4. Last seen, doesn’t matter: Avoid observing the last seen status of a user unless the reply you are expecting is very urgent. Again, a very critical topic and one needs intense control over the self to practice this.

Whatsapp- What’s up? :) 

How important is Campus Selection?

Many students I come across are unaware about how important is getting a job during graduation (generally referred as campus selection).Generally, students make the disastrous mistake of not preparing for a campus interview well in advance. The realization generally comes too late, often after the first interview is over.  Confidence level of even the brightest is bound to go down a notch or two after messing up one interview. So the key is, “Get it right the first time!”

Campus interview season is already well on its way, and it won’t be long before you are confronted with your first corporate showdown. Intimidating thought? Most certainly; but it is natural to be a little anxious before your first campus interview process. In fact, a little anxiety might actually enhance your performance. Let this nervous energy drive your efforts to success.

Campus selection is the biggest platform for a student to get himself and his career a good break and kick-start as his fresher level. Thus preparing for campus selection has to be very strategic, it being your first interview.

The benefits that student derives from Campus selection can be summarized as:

1. The invaluable job platform: Various big companies, even including MNCs do visit college campuses in search for fresh talents. The hiring of these companies otherwise (outside campus after graduation) is quite tough to get through, and to get in you would need references or real good labor.

2. Better offers at hand: Better and viable profiles and posts are offered to students in campus interviews, outside market competition for which could be quite high.

3. Handsome packages: Handsome or at least reasonable packages are offered to the fresher’s at their campus selection, obviously in-line with the ranking of the college and the past campus records, skill sets of the candidate, etc. Student’s performance definitely could take the slab further negotiable.

4. In-campus ambiance: Wherein the interviews are being held in your own college, your teachers and friends are out there and you have been oriented about the how abouts. These factors work a lot, both directly as well as indirectly, boosting your confidence, morale, etc.

5. Support for further growth: Getting a good campus offer/job quite a lot eases your further job-changes and growth path. It kick starts the career progression.

6. Safeguards against job struggle: Outside your college campus exists a firing world of competition, too tough and full of pains of struggle for freshers. Therein you not only need to give all your stamina and energy, trying to get a good job, but the earnings also do turn out to be peanuts, as the packages and job-configuration also come in hand thin and weak. The resources (time and money) you spend in finding and getting a job outside campus are generally excessively higher than that what you could have spent on the campus.

So to take a smooth career road, prepare well for your campus interview and leave no stone un-turned!

Above post was based on my experience and current observation of the 2014 batch. I hope the readers of consecutive batches would take a note and act upon!