Learn English – How to ask the following question in polite and formal manner

formal-languagepolitenessquestions

Can you please tell me, what would be the right sentence formation and decent way to ask the following question:

"Have you read the job description properly / thoroughly and got an idea of what I am looking for exactly?"

Best Answer

I would split this question into two questions.

Have you read the job description thoroughly?
Do you understand what I am looking for?

Most job descriptions either do not provide enough detail, or provide too much detail without prioritizing which details are most important. Thus, it is very difficult for someone reading a job description to know what the employer is "looking for exactly". I therefore left out the word "exactly".

This answer changes the questions in five ways:

  • It avoids having a run-on sentence.
  • The word "I" is correctly capitalized.
  • It uses the word "thoroughly", which is a better choice (in this context) than the word "properly".
  • It avoids an informal (and in my opinion, incorrect) use of the word "got".
  • It uses the word "understand". "Understanding" something is more thorough than "having an idea", but might not be as thorough as understanding something "exactly".

All of these changes make the questions more formal.