The Employer Evaluation Request Email, Line by Line

An effective employer evaluation request email should tell the supervisor who is asking, what they are being asked to do, how long it will take, and when it is due, all in the first few lines. If any of those four pieces are vague, the supervisor is more likely to ignore the message, forward it, or wait until the deadline has passed.

What the email has to do

The job of this email is not to persuade a supervisor that evaluations are important. Most supervisors already know that. The job is to make completion easy enough that they can act on the message immediately, without hunting for context or deciding whether it is legitimate.

A useful request email does four things well:

• identifies the student and internship site
• says who is making the request and on behalf of whom
• gives a realistic time estimate
• gives a specific deadline and the consequences of missing it, if relevant

Anything else is optional.

Subject line

The subject line should be plain and specific. It should let the supervisor recognize the student and understand that this is a request for an evaluation, not a general update or administrative announcement.

Good subject lines are short and direct:

• Evaluation request for Maria Lopez, marketing intern
• Internship supervisor evaluation needed for Jamal Reed
• End-of-term evaluation request, Sofia Patel

Avoid clever wording, urgency for its own sake, or vague labels like “Action needed” on its own. If the supervisor receives multiple campus emails, the student’s name is the most useful part.

Who the email appears to come from

The sender matters as much as the wording. Supervisors are more likely to respond when the message comes from the person they already know, usually the faculty supervisor, internship coordinator, or career services contact who has been managing the placement.

If the email is sent from a generic office address, the first line should make the human relationship clear:

I am writing on behalf of Maria Lopez, who completed her internship with your team this semester.

That sentence does two things at once. It identifies the student and explains why the sender is writing.

If the request comes directly from a student, the supervisor may still comply, but response rates are usually better when the message comes from the institution. That is not because students should not be involved. It is because a supervisor is less likely to question whether the request is official.

The time-cost promise

The most overlooked line in these emails is the estimate of how long the evaluation will take. Supervisors are much more likely to complete a form that is described as a five-minute task than one that simply says “please complete the evaluation.”

Be honest. If the form takes 10 to 15 minutes, say that. If it is longer, acknowledge it and explain why it matters. A false five-minute promise can damage trust when the supervisor opens the form and sees 25 questions.

A good time-cost line looks like this:

The evaluation takes about 7 minutes to complete.

Or:

The form is 12 questions and usually takes under 10 minutes.

If the request includes both a narrative section and a rating scale, say so. That helps the supervisor decide whether to start it now or save it for a longer block of time.

The deadline

The deadline should be a calendar date, not a phrase like “soon” or “by the end of the semester.” Specific dates reduce confusion across institutions, time zones, and academic calendars.

Use a deadline that is close enough to create urgency, but not so close that it feels unrealistic. If the supervisor has to review the student’s work over a full term, a request sent the day before the due date is a process problem, not just a communication problem.

A better approach is to state both the deadline and, when useful, the reason:

Please submit the evaluation by Friday, April 19, so we can finalize the student’s internship record.

That line is clear, concrete, and easy to act on.

Full example

Below is a complete example that includes the pieces most supervisors need.

Subject: Evaluation request for Maria Lopez, marketing intern

Hello Ms. Chen,

I am writing on behalf of Maria Lopez, who completed her marketing internship with your team this spring. We are requesting a brief supervisor evaluation to document her internship experience and support our program records.

The evaluation form takes about 7 minutes to complete. It asks for ratings and a few brief comments on Maria’s performance.

Please submit the form by Friday, April 19.

Evaluation link: [insert link]

Thank you for your time and for supporting Maria’s learning experience.

Best,

Jordan Ellis Internship Coordinator River State University

What makes this example work

The message works because it answers the practical questions a supervisor has before clicking anything:

• Who is this about? Maria Lopez.
• Who is asking? A named institutional contact.
• What will it take? About 7 minutes.
• When is it due? Friday, April 19.
• What happens next? A single link, no extra search.

The message is also polite without being wordy. It does not over-explain the internship program or ask the supervisor to care about assessment theory.

Common mistakes to avoid

Hiding the purpose

Phrases like “I wanted to follow up” or “Please see below” force the supervisor to read before understanding the request. Lead with the purpose immediately.

Making the sender unclear

If the email comes from a department inbox, include a signature with a person’s name and role. A generic address with no person attached feels easy to ignore.

Inflating the form’s simplicity

Do not say “just a quick form” if the request includes several open-ended questions. Supervisors notice mismatches immediately.

Forgetting the student’s name

The supervisor may supervise multiple interns. The student’s name should appear in the subject line and the first sentence.

Treating the deadline as optional

A deadline without a date is not a deadline. It is a suggestion.

A practical version for program use

If your program sends these requests regularly, use a standard template and adjust only the student name, site, due date, and link. Consistency makes the process easier for supervisors and reduces missed evaluations.

For programs that need both student self-assessment and supervisor feedback, a single coordinated request can reduce email traffic. A platform like Career Readiness Report can help institutions collect those inputs in one place, then produce benchmark and reporting outputs that are easier to use for program review. The email itself still needs to be simple, though. Better software does not fix a vague request.

A strong employer evaluation request email is brief, specific, and honest about the burden it creates. If the supervisor can tell at a glance who the student is, who is asking, how long it will take, and when it is due, the message has done its job.