Asking for a reference
You need a reference from a teacher who has about two hundred students. The deadline is in three weeks.
What makes them most likely to say yes?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Something has gone wrong
You cannot meet a deadline. It is partly your fault. It is due in two days.
What do you write?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Most emails go unanswered because the reader could not tell what was being asked, or the answer would take too long to write.
The shape
Who you are, what you want, why you are asking them, and by when. Four lines is usually enough.
The subject line is not decoration
"Question about Thursday’s deadline" gets opened. "Hi" gets left.
Make the reply cheap
Offer two times rather than asking when suits. Attach the thing rather than saying you can send it. Every step you remove makes a reply likelier.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Order an Email
Tap the parts in the order they should appear.
You are asking a teacher for a reference.
- 1What you are asking for
- 2Why you are asking them specifically
- 3The deadline
- 4What you have attached to make it easier
- 5Who you are and which class
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 2
Which is the better subject line?
Question 2 of 2
You have had no reply after a week. What do you do?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Four lines
- Find something you need to ask somebody for.
- Write it in four lines: who, what, why you, by when.
- Read it back and cut anything that is not one of those four.
Why: The cutting is the exercise. Almost every unanswered email is too long.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Say who you are, what you want, and by when.
- Put the request near the top.
- Make replying take as few steps as possible.
For the grown-up
This is one of the highest-return practical skills in the whole subject. Students who can write a clear request get help, extensions and opportunities that equally capable students do not.
Worth writing one together the first time, then having them write the next one alone. It is a format skill and it transfers immediately.
Following up without apologising excessively is a distinct sub-skill. Many young people either never follow up or open with a paragraph of apology.