Good Email Etiquette
Good Email Etiquette
Transcript
Email is a primary form of communication on college campuses. It's convenient, it's easy, and it's archive-able, but not everyone knows how to send an appropriate and effective email to a faculty member at a college or university. Writing to your professor is different than writing to your friend, or even writing to your employer, and so I want to give you a few tips today to avoid making any mistakes in writing to your professors and making sure that those emails are again, appropriate and effective. Let's begin the exercise by looking at an email that's not particularly appropriate. "Hey Prof, sorry I missed class. "Would you mind going over the lecture with me "during your office hours so I don't fall behind? "Thanks, Joe."
There are a couple of problems here. The first is, the email is pretty casual. It's also presumptuous. It assumes that the professor has the time to re-teach the material given in lecture to a single student because that student missed a class. So these are all problems and they can't all be avoided, but there are a couple tips I can give you to make sure this kind of an email is not the kind of email that you write to your professors. And I'd say probably, the first rule of thumb here is just, use your common sense. What kind of an email would you like to receive if you were a professor? And what kind of an email would you send to someone who is teaching at a university? Using that as a guide, let's talk about a couple of strategies to write appropriate emails. The first, air on the side of formality. It's always better to be formal than to be informal when writing to your professors.
So in this particular case, "Hey Prof" should probably be "Dear Professor Xavier." It's always a good idea to use people's official titles when you can. Professor, Doctor, Dean. In this case, you're never at risk of being too informal. And one thing to consider is that sometimes when you do write to a professor and they write back, they might sign their email with their first name or even their initials. Usually, that's done because it's the quickest thing to do, not because that person is giving you implicit permission to call them by their first name. So even if a professor signs off "Rick," that doesn't mean that you should write your next email, "Dear Rick," or "Hi, Rick." Always use the title.
So first, we're going to be a little bit more formal.
Second, we're going to provide pertinent and helpful information to help the professor understand a little bit better what they're reading and what the communication is about. Remember, your professor is probably receiving a lot of email, and so a little bit of context goes a long way. Make sure to provide your name, but also what class you're taking with that professor, and what specifically you're writing about. And remember to do your due diligence. Don't write an email to your professor seeking an answer to a question that you could have gotten online, on a course website, or on a syllabus. That's a waste of someone's time and it's disrespectful. So make sure when you write an email to a professor, you're asking for information that you couldn't get on your own.
Third, be as clear and concise as you can be. Communicate only what you need to communicate and avoid long, detailed narratives. If you need to write two, three, four paragraphs in your email, it's possible that a different form of communication may be more appropriate. So when you're thinking about what you need to communicate, and when you think about the level of detail you need to communicate it, decide whether email is the most appropriate form of communication for that particular information.
Sometimes, it's better to have a conversation with a professor after class or ideally, you can go to their scheduled office hours to have more detailed conversations. Again, email should be a little bit transactional. It should be clear, and it should be concise because remember, you're not the only person sending this person emails. They have a lot of students, they have a lot of colleagues, they're doing a lot of their business over email just like you're doing your business over email, and so it's important to be respectful of their time and resources by making sure that your emails are clear and concise. Fourth, be courteous. A little bit of courtesy, a little bit of kindness goes a really long way. So for example, instead of saying, "Please get back to me as soon as possible," you might say, "I look forward to hearing from you "at your convenience." This is probably a good time to mention that if you write your professor an email at 11:00 P.M., do not write them again at 8:00 in the morning wondering why they haven't responded. Always give a professor 24 to 48 hours to respond to your emails. And if they don't respond, try forwarding the email to them again a little bit after that window to gently remind them that you've contacted them, but hounding a professor won't get you anywhere. Remember, they're managing a lot of students and a lot of email.
The other thing you should avoid doing is sending them an email one day and then approaching them in class to ask them if they got your email the next day. They got your email, they just haven't had time to respond to it. So again, a little bit of courtesy and some respect goes a really long way. And finally, proofread your emails. Spelling and grammatical errors in emails to faculty members suggests a lack of care and a lack of thoughtfulness. If it's important enough to email someone about, then it should be important enough to proofread. Let's go back to that email I showed you earlier, the email where none of these tips were followed. "Hey Prof, sorry I missed class. "Would you mind going over the lecture with me "during your office hours so I don't fall behind? "Thanks, Joe." Now the tips I've given you won't be able to cure the sense of entitlement that generates an email like this, but I do think that we can communicate something similar in a way that's going to be more appropriate, more effective, and that I think will elicit a better response from the professor.
Let's try being more formal, let's try providing a little bit more pertinent information, let's be a little bit of courteous, clear, and let's proofread our email and we might come up with something like this. "Dear Professor Xavier, "I hope this note finds you well. "My name is Joe Smith, and I am a student "in your Calculus I course. "I was not able to attend class on Monday "due to illness, but I have already consulted "the syllabus and I have arranged to get notes "from a classmate. "I was, however, hoping to attend your office hours "this week to ask a few clarifying questions "about the material. "Would that be okay with you? "Thank you for your time, attention, and care. "Sincerely, Joe Smith."
This email tells a story of student who is thoughtful, who has done his due diligence, and who is writing and communicating in a way that respects the professor's time and respects the relationship that they're in. These are the kinds of emails that you want to write and using the tips I've given you, this is how you can generate effective and appropriate emails to your faculty members.
There are a couple of problems here. The first is, the email is pretty casual. It's also presumptuous. It assumes that the professor has the time to re-teach the material given in lecture to a single student because that student missed a class. So these are all problems and they can't all be avoided, but there are a couple tips I can give you to make sure this kind of an email is not the kind of email that you write to your professors. And I'd say probably, the first rule of thumb here is just, use your common sense. What kind of an email would you like to receive if you were a professor? And what kind of an email would you send to someone who is teaching at a university? Using that as a guide, let's talk about a couple of strategies to write appropriate emails. The first, air on the side of formality. It's always better to be formal than to be informal when writing to your professors.
So in this particular case, "Hey Prof" should probably be "Dear Professor Xavier." It's always a good idea to use people's official titles when you can. Professor, Doctor, Dean. In this case, you're never at risk of being too informal. And one thing to consider is that sometimes when you do write to a professor and they write back, they might sign their email with their first name or even their initials. Usually, that's done because it's the quickest thing to do, not because that person is giving you implicit permission to call them by their first name. So even if a professor signs off "Rick," that doesn't mean that you should write your next email, "Dear Rick," or "Hi, Rick." Always use the title.
So first, we're going to be a little bit more formal.
Second, we're going to provide pertinent and helpful information to help the professor understand a little bit better what they're reading and what the communication is about. Remember, your professor is probably receiving a lot of email, and so a little bit of context goes a long way. Make sure to provide your name, but also what class you're taking with that professor, and what specifically you're writing about. And remember to do your due diligence. Don't write an email to your professor seeking an answer to a question that you could have gotten online, on a course website, or on a syllabus. That's a waste of someone's time and it's disrespectful. So make sure when you write an email to a professor, you're asking for information that you couldn't get on your own.
Third, be as clear and concise as you can be. Communicate only what you need to communicate and avoid long, detailed narratives. If you need to write two, three, four paragraphs in your email, it's possible that a different form of communication may be more appropriate. So when you're thinking about what you need to communicate, and when you think about the level of detail you need to communicate it, decide whether email is the most appropriate form of communication for that particular information.
Sometimes, it's better to have a conversation with a professor after class or ideally, you can go to their scheduled office hours to have more detailed conversations. Again, email should be a little bit transactional. It should be clear, and it should be concise because remember, you're not the only person sending this person emails. They have a lot of students, they have a lot of colleagues, they're doing a lot of their business over email just like you're doing your business over email, and so it's important to be respectful of their time and resources by making sure that your emails are clear and concise. Fourth, be courteous. A little bit of courtesy, a little bit of kindness goes a really long way. So for example, instead of saying, "Please get back to me as soon as possible," you might say, "I look forward to hearing from you "at your convenience." This is probably a good time to mention that if you write your professor an email at 11:00 P.M., do not write them again at 8:00 in the morning wondering why they haven't responded. Always give a professor 24 to 48 hours to respond to your emails. And if they don't respond, try forwarding the email to them again a little bit after that window to gently remind them that you've contacted them, but hounding a professor won't get you anywhere. Remember, they're managing a lot of students and a lot of email.
The other thing you should avoid doing is sending them an email one day and then approaching them in class to ask them if they got your email the next day. They got your email, they just haven't had time to respond to it. So again, a little bit of courtesy and some respect goes a really long way. And finally, proofread your emails. Spelling and grammatical errors in emails to faculty members suggests a lack of care and a lack of thoughtfulness. If it's important enough to email someone about, then it should be important enough to proofread. Let's go back to that email I showed you earlier, the email where none of these tips were followed. "Hey Prof, sorry I missed class. "Would you mind going over the lecture with me "during your office hours so I don't fall behind? "Thanks, Joe." Now the tips I've given you won't be able to cure the sense of entitlement that generates an email like this, but I do think that we can communicate something similar in a way that's going to be more appropriate, more effective, and that I think will elicit a better response from the professor.
Let's try being more formal, let's try providing a little bit more pertinent information, let's be a little bit of courteous, clear, and let's proofread our email and we might come up with something like this. "Dear Professor Xavier, "I hope this note finds you well. "My name is Joe Smith, and I am a student "in your Calculus I course. "I was not able to attend class on Monday "due to illness, but I have already consulted "the syllabus and I have arranged to get notes "from a classmate. "I was, however, hoping to attend your office hours "this week to ask a few clarifying questions "about the material. "Would that be okay with you? "Thank you for your time, attention, and care. "Sincerely, Joe Smith."
This email tells a story of student who is thoughtful, who has done his due diligence, and who is writing and communicating in a way that respects the professor's time and respects the relationship that they're in. These are the kinds of emails that you want to write and using the tips I've given you, this is how you can generate effective and appropriate emails to your faculty members.