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A professor tweeted that he has a PhD position in his lab. I am trying to write a mail regarding that. How should I express that where did I find the advertisement?

Is it right to start mail like this:

Dear Prof. ZZZ,

I am writing to apply for the PhD position which was posted on your twitter.

Or should I write something else?

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  • 12
    Twitter with capital letter, I think?
    – User
    Sep 25, 2019 at 16:05
  • 23
    Why not just DM him?
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Sep 25, 2019 at 16:09
  • 1
    No need, the position is already filled :|
    – lsr729
    Sep 26, 2019 at 4:02
  • 2
    Have you checked the prof's university website? In all likelihood a proper advertisement of the position will have been posted there, including instructions of how to apply for the position.
    – TimRias
    Sep 26, 2019 at 6:13
  • I am more used to Facebook than Twitter but I guess that, since the professor chose Twitter to advertise the position, it is certainly fine to comment the tweet to ask on which venue and format the applications should be sent.
    – Taladris
    Sep 26, 2019 at 13:59

2 Answers 2

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55

That is perfectly fine. The professor chose to use twitter as a medium of announcing the position. They are expecting responses to that advertisement. It's always a good idea to explain how you heard about the position. Your email does all of those things.

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  • 9
    Agree that it is fine. Probably not essential, though.
    – Buffy
    Sep 25, 2019 at 14:19
  • So...I appreciate all of the upvotes, but I'm not entirely sure why there are so many :-P It was a simple question with a simple answer. Out of curiosity, can someone explain why this question was so popular?
    – Michael Stachowsky
    Sep 27, 2019 at 11:27
  • Part of it was just lucky timing, though the answer seems clear and correct. The site had a lot of activity over the last couple of days. Lots of voting. Lots of views. The activity here is cyclic.
    – Buffy
    Sep 27, 2019 at 11:31
  • fair enough :-)
    – Michael Stachowsky
    Sep 27, 2019 at 11:31
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Next time, just send in your message instead of posting a question online. What's the worst that can happen, after all? I'm not meaning to sound rude -- just to point out that you should go with your instinct and not worry too much about wording. In some cases (like this one), time is of the essence.

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  • 1
    Or better yet, do both. That way you know if your wording is bad, but you don't lose too much time
    – DreamConspiracy
    Sep 26, 2019 at 16:53

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