Learning outcomes:
- Describe the characteristics of effective professional communication in a technical workplace
- Write a professional email that is clear, appropriately formatted, and suited to its intended audience
- Identify the differences between informal and formal communication and explain when each is appropriate
Key Takeaways:
- Clear, respectful, and purposeful communication is more professional than formal or complicated language
- Match the communication method to the situation: complex discussions need meetings, quick questions need chat, formal requests need email
- Before sending, ask: Is my purpose clear? Have I given enough context? Is my tone appropriate for this person?
- In difficult conversations, focus on the problem and the next step, not blame, frustration, or personal criticism
- Active listening means focusing on understanding, asking clarifying questions, and confirming what was agreed before you leave the conversation
Would you like to download my PowerPoint to follow along?
- Why Professional Communication Matters
- Strong communication helps people build trust, avoid misunderstandings, solve problems faster, collaborate more effectively and create positive professional relationships
- Professional communication is not about sounding formal or using complicated language
- It is about being clear, respectful, and purposeful
- Consider Your Audience
- Before communicating, ask: Who am I communicating with? How might they best hear and understand me?
- For example, slang may be ok to include for peers, but not welcome for professors or supervisors at work. No cap.
- What do they need to know?
- Provide enough information to understand the situation without overwhelming them
- What outcome am I hoping for?
- Asking a question
- Providing information
- Requesting help
- Giving an update
- Solving a problem
- Before communicating, ask: Who am I communicating with? How might they best hear and understand me?
- How to refer to people
- Consider titles and if the person you are talking to wishes to have things like Professor, Dr or something else included
- Don't assume gender or marital status
- For example, Ms. Mrs. Or Miss are not interchangeable and people can have strong feelings about what they want to be called
- Consider including your pronouns as way to indicate you are open to using what someone else prefers
- Consider using generic pronouns (they/them) until you know what the person you are talking to prefers
- If someone asks you to refer to them by a specific name, use it
- GLAAD: Pronouns, which explains why pronouns matter in professional contexts and how to use them respectfully
- Choose the Right Communication Method
- Complex discussion
- Meeting or conversation with notes and a summary
- Quick question
- Chat/IM
- Formal request
- Documentation
- Email and/or internal documents
- Urgent issue
- Call or direct message
- In-Person Communication
- Be Prepared
- Know:
- Why you're meeting
- What questions you have
- What information you need
- Listen Actively
- Focus on understanding
- Consider taking notes, recording or another way to remember the conversation
- Ask the other people if they are ok with notes/recording
- Do a follow-up email/chat to check understanding
- edX: Active Listening at Work. Covers techniques for listening fully, asking clarifying questions, and retaining what was discussed
- Email Communication
- Structure Emails Professionally
- A professional email should include:
- Subject Line
- Greeting
- Context
- Purpose
- Closing
- Signature
- Grammarly: How to Write a Professional Email. Practical examples of each element of a professional email
- Purdue OWL: Professional Technical Writing. Comprehensive reference for professional writing conventions including email and workplace communication
- Chat Platforms (Teams, Slack, Discord, etc)
- Write Clear Chat Messages
- A good chat message includes:
- Context
- Purpose
- Specific question or update
- Brevity
- Do
- Be concise
- Be respectful
- Use complete thoughts
- Provide context
- Avoid
- One-word messages
- Excessive abbreviations
- Sending multiple fragmented messages
- Using chat for complex discussions
- Slack: Etiquette Tips. Slack's own guidance on writing clear, respectful messages in workplace chat
- Handling Difficult Conversations
- Professional communication is especially important during disagreement
- Focus on the Problem
- Instead of:
- You never finish your work.
- Try:
- The task assigned for Tuesday hasn't been completed yet. Can we discuss how to move forward?
- Instead of:
- Ask Questions instead of making assumptions
- Be Solution-Oriented
- Focus on:
- Next steps, Clarification, and Resolution
- Don't focus on:
- Blame, Frustration, Personal criticism
- HBR Podcast: Hard Conversations. Harvard Business Review episode on how to approach difficult workplace conversations constructively
- Review Before Sending messages/emails
- Ask:
- Is my purpose clear?
- Have I provided enough context?
- Is my tone professional?
- Practice Active Listening in meetings and conversations:
- Listen fully
- Ask clarifying questions
- Summarize next steps
- Match the Communication Method to the Situation
- Focus on Clarity
- The best professional communicators are not the most formal.
- They are the clearest.
- APA Style: Personal Communications. A reminder that emails and conversations can be cited as sources, reinforcing why written communication should be professional and clear
- Ask:
Suggested Activities and Discussion Topics:
- Activity: Go through This AI generated study guide, what do you think? Did it capture the week materials well? How did you do on the self quiz? Do you know all the vocab used?
- Activity: Go through this AI-generated key terms list for this module. How many of the terms did you already know? Were there any definitions you would update or expand based on the lecture notes? Did the AI miss any important terms? This should take about 10–15 minutes.
- Activity: Write two versions of the same message, one informal (as if texting a classmate) and one professional (as if emailing a supervisor or instructor about the same situation). The situation can be anything: asking for an extension, reporting a problem, or following up on a missed meeting. Then compare the two: What changed? What stayed the same? What would happen if you sent the wrong version to the wrong person? This should take about 20–30 minutes.
- Activity: Read this example of a professional job inquiry email and this example of a poorly written one on the same topic. Evaluate both using the following questions: Is the purpose of the message clear within the first sentence? Is the tone appropriate for the audience? Is it concise, or does it include unnecessary information? Be specific about what makes one effective and what makes the other fall short. What would you change to improve the weaker example? This should take about 15–20 minutes.
- Discussion: Think about a time when a miscommunication caused a problem at work, in school, or in a group project. What happened? Looking back, what communication choices contributed to the misunderstanding, and what could have been done differently to prevent it?
- Discussion: Professional communication norms vary across industries, cultures, and generations. What expectations around email, tone, or formality have you encountered that surprised you or felt different from what you were used to? How do you think someone new to a workplace should figure out the unwritten communication rules of that environment?
- Activity: Choose an AI tool of your choice such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. Copy and paste the text of the poorly written email example into the AI and ask it to rewrite it as a professional job inquiry. Read the AI's version and compare it to the good example from this module. Answer the following: What did the AI fix? What did it miss? Does it sound like a real person or a template? Would you submit the AI version as-is or would it need changes? This should take about 5–10 minutes.
- Activity: Listen to a recorded professional meeting, presentation, or interview, such as a TED talk, a podcast episode, a company earnings call on YouTube, or any formal recorded conversation. As you listen, take notes on the communication techniques you observe: How does the speaker open and close? How do they handle questions or pushback? What makes their communication feel professional rather than casual? Identify two specific techniques you would like to practice yourself and explain why you chose them. This should take about 30–45 minutes.
- Activity: Write a professional email for a real situation you are currently facing, such as asking a professor for clarification, following up on a job application, or requesting a meeting with someone in a field you want to learn about. Before sending, review it using the checklist from this module: clear subject line, professional greeting, context, purpose, specific ask, closing, and signature. Then send it. After you receive a response, reflect on what worked and what you would change. This should take about 20–30 minutes to write; response time will vary.
- Activity: Find two examples of professional communication from the same company or organization, such as two emails they sent, two social media posts, or two web pages aimed at different audiences. Compare the tone, vocabulary, formality, and structure. What changed between them? What stayed the same? What does this tell you about how professional communicators adapt their approach based on audience and purpose? This should take about 20–30 minutes.
- Activity: Practice a difficult workplace conversation in writing. Choose one of the following scenarios: you need to tell a teammate that their section of a group project is incomplete and the deadline is tomorrow; you need to follow up with an instructor about a grade you think was applied incorrectly; or you need to tell a supervisor you cannot meet a commitment you made. Write the message, then evaluate it using the principles from this module: Does it focus on the problem rather than blame? Does it include a specific ask or proposed next step? Is the tone professional even though the topic is uncomfortable? This should take about 20–30 minutes.
- Activity: Research a professional communication platform you have not used before, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord in a professional context, or a project management tool with communication features. Find out: What are the norms for professional use? What are common mistakes? What features are designed specifically for professional communication, such as threads, status indicators, or scheduled messages? Write a short summary of your findings and explain whether this tool would fit your communication style and why. This should take about 30–45 minutes.
Related modules you might find useful:
Would you like to see some more How tos? See more How tos