Emailing Professors for Research Opportunities: Dos and Dont's

I received an email from a high school senior today, enquiring if I was looking for a research assistant. It was very well worded and polite, but clearly a form letter. Since it's the summer, and I have a bit of time on my hands, I thought I would reply to him with a few tips on how to better write these emails (I have accumulated quite a bit of experience over the years :p).

I won't post his original email, but here's what I said:

1. Don't send emails using bcc. Professors receive many such emails a day and have to choose which to respond to. The less yours feels like a mass email, the more likely you'll receive a response. 

2. Address the recipient appropriately (most grad students would be ok with a first name, but mr [last name] might be safer; Dr. [last name] for post-docs and Professor [last name] for faculty.

3. State clearly in the first paragraph your current education level. Vacancies are different for high school freshmen, seniors, undergrads and college grads. The recipient shouldn't have to figure it out themselves from your resume.

4. You need to be a little more specific about your research interests. It's good to have broad interests, especially when you are in high school, but you need to elaborate. Listing fields (i.e. "psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and medicine") actually tells the recipient very little about what you are interested in, and as such, difficult for him/her to figure out whether you would be a good fit for the lab. 

5. 

Specifically, I am interested in the subject of your research and would love to further investigate my passion for it. 

This sounds a little insincere if you had not demonstrated some knowledge that you know what the recipient's research is about. Show that you've done some homework and did not send the same email to a 100 .edu addresses. So comment intelligently on the recipient's research focus, and how his/her work fits with your own research interest.

I hope he doesn't take it the wrong way! Just thought these tips would give him a better chance in his search!