5 Terrific Tips to Get a Grip on Communicating Online Like a Proficient Pip

Superfluous scribing, excessive emailing, misleading messaging, and writing paragraphs after and paragraphs only to be responded with a question mark from the recipient…inconvenient communication between faculty members and students is becoming a habit, so here are five pieces of advice from professionals in both AISG and all over the globe to prevent you from committing a communication vice!

1. Make sure your receiver knows who you are.

To prevent miscommunication, always introduce yourself to your receiver if they do not have any previous encounters with you! If you are writing to a teacher or student who has met you but never conversed or exchanged names with you, changing your profile picture to an appropriate headshot would be effective.

You probably don’t want them to simply be referring to you as either your last name or something awkward like “student/teacher”, so make sure you give them your name and something which can distinguish you from another person!

2. Use an appropriate greeting.

If you are writing to someone with who you are still unfamiliar with or want to keep on formal terms, use a formal greeting such as “Dear” or “Greetings”. But if you are aiming for casualness yet still want to include a greeting, “Hello” or “Hi” will always create a friendly and relaxed messaging environment.

Referring correctly to your recipient’s name is also appropriate for effective communication. If a student is texting or emailing an adult staff, keeping the name as the adult’s title and last name is the most suitable. This act adds a level of respect from the sender and helps build a positive relationship.

3. Write with concise and polite language.

When inquiring about simple matters, being too wordy can prevent the promptness and quality of the reply and can also add an overly formal or even pretentious feeling to the inquiry. Being straightforward will save time and solve problems most consistently.

However, being straightforward but also polite is challenging for some people. Not offending your receiver by being blunt and abrupt can be done by moderately using passive language. For example, the phrase “tell me about the period for tomorrow’s group discussion.” is too assertive, because it sounds like a command, but modifying the phrase into “can you please inform me about the period for tomorrow’s group discussion?” turns it into a question, although the recipient will reply with the same answer, they will feel less forced, which will make further conversations feel more friendly.

4. End the message with a note of gratitude.

Thank the person you are talking to, even if they didn’t help you much. If they did not do you much good, you could thank them for their time; if they did contribute, thank them for something specific. Even if you cannot come up with any specific contributions, simply vaguely summarizing the benefits they gave you from the conversation will improve your relationship with them!

5. Proofread the entire message.

Grammar and spelling issues are very common when messaging. From a content perspective, these mistakes can mislead your receiver, causing miscommunication between you two. It can also leave the recipient with a negative impression of you, as they might think you are a careless person who doesn’t respect their time and efforts to contribute. To avoid these errors, reading the entire memo out loud for yourself to hear can help you identify any issue with the flowing, grammar, and spelling. A tool such as Grammarly can aid you more quickly since it can process an entire passage within seconds.

If you have any other suggestions or experiences relating to online communication that you think might help, feel free the comment down below!