PR discussions: Re: [prpoint] Attitude of students - Need for good Business Communication skills

Dear All, ( attn Naren)

I read your mail and here are my observations.

1) I agree the student cannot write a mail like that as if she is addressing to another colleague or student seeking a break

2) But I will forgive and overlook the letter for not being official but certainly point out to the mailer that its not official and cannot be put on record for any request to be entertained , hence the person should send an proper official mail for any response.

3) Email has become very easy way of communicating with people. So people, particularly the younger generation , the ones who are fresh out of college, we call them GREEN HORNS as they fail to understand corporate hierarchy and discpline, do tend to forget the basic tents of business communication. Some MBA courses have business english and I have taught them as a guest lecturer. Maybe mascomm courses still dont have Business English in the curriculum. Urgent need to have them.

4) Also basic courtesy demands that when you link with a 2nd person through the 1st, then you need to copy the first person who helped you out. I see there is no copying to srinivasan who went out of the way out of his busy schedules to help.

5) PR Point or other fora should launch a workshop for youngsters on Business English and Corporate Communications, ethics and procedures immediately.

Best Regards,

TN Ashok

Corporate Consultant& Freelance Journallist

( Rice, Steel, Power, Oil and Gas sectors)

New Delhi, India

+91 98101 88700

+91 11 2271 3192

ashoktnex@gmail.com

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Narendran A <naren_vna@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Friends

Recently we had a dicussion in the group about attitude of students passing out of premier colleges. I wish to highlight an email communication between a student and PR executive

The incident:

A Communication student from a well known Chennai college called our Moderator Mr K. Srinivasan over phone ten days back and wanted a PR internship. Mr Srinivasan asked her to send her profile to his e mail id. The student sent her profile as attachment without any request for internship or covering mail.

Though, her mail had only her profile as attachment, Mr Srinivasan forwarded her profile to me and to Sakthi with a request to help her to get an internship. He also endorsed a copy to her with a request to contact both of us over mobile with more details.

Since, she did not contact either of us for a week, Sakthi sent a mail to the student. I reproduce below Sakthi's mail and her response. I have suppressed the name of the student and the college.

Sakthi's mail to the student:

Dear XXXXXXXX,

This is further to the email sent by Mr. Srinivasan regarding your internship. Have you got any internship or still looking out? pls let me know.

Regards,
Sakthi Prasanna.

The response by the student:

"I havent got a conformation yet. I am waiting for it. I have applied in XXXXXXX & XXXXX. I am also interested in PR. If i can join your company I would like to know my work profile or what will be my work contribution and other details. My contact no is 9xxxx xxxxx."

(The student's mail did not even contain customary words like dear so and so or hi or even regards, as it was official and for the first time. The response also lack politness, when she seeks an internship. She does not even request an internship. It looks as though, she is going to honour the Agency by joining there as intern. Further She has provided her contact number probably expecting Sakthi to contact her and explain the job profile.)

Though Mr Srinivasan had asked her to contact us over mobile, she did not contact for a week. Atleast on receipt of Sakthi's mail, she should have contacted him over phone for guidance.

Nowadays, many of the mails received from the young students lack humility and politeness. I am sharing this communication with all, so that young students should learn to write good letters/mails. They should develop good communication skills when they write formally.

Even the educational institutions should devote some classes to teach 'Business communication skills'.

Request members to share their views.

Best regards
Narren