There was a time in college when I would get mails from my professors and I had a problem in responding them. I did not know how to say to them what I wanted to say. What I mean is, I doubted myself if I was saying the right thing. Was I using the right words, was my language good, was my flow coherent. And I would edit it for a long time, sometimes, an hour. At times I would get so overwhelmed by it that I would not reply at all thinking that it was understood that which I had to say, or that it was not required since there was nothing significant I had to convey.

Now interns at ColoredCow faced the same situation. They would not reply to emails, either because, like me, they thought they did now know the perfect thing to say or they would dwell on it too much. Their (read interns’) mentors and my professors did not know our version of the story and there was no reason for them to know.

Seeing the interns in my position I realize that it might have reflected a negative image of me on my professors. They must have thought I was being irresponsible by not replying , that I did not give heed to their word.
A lot of us do this without realizing its impact. It is important to communicate. Even if all you have to do is roger them. Let the other person know that you’ve got their word. And you do not need to dwell on how you should what you want to say. That’s because the most a mail can say about you is your grammar and if you care about the other person’s reading experience. No one has time to interpret about a person over a mail, that can be done personally too. So make your reply readable in terms of structure and grammar. If these two are alright then you need to stop obsessing over the reply and send it already.
A prompt reply is better than a good looking reply.

Abhishek Sharma
Content & Design Head
ColoredCow
abhishek@coloredcow.in