Saturday, August 29, 2009
How to e-mail a professor
Orange Crate Art: "I've read enough e-mails to know that many college students could benefit from some guidelines for writing an e-mail to a professor. Here they are"
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12 comments:
I've definitely refined my email writing skills over the past year, but I can always use a little more help as well as more tips. I tend to assume that a teacher knows what class I'm in, because in the school of drama, our classes are so small that everyone knows everyone else pretty easily. I will definitely take away the tip to include a course number and more specific, but brief, information in my email titles and closing signatures.
Emailing a teacher is always hard for students. We are so use to connecting with our friends in a lot of different ways: texting, emails, and facebook. I think we do it so much that when it comes time for us to sit down and right almost a formal letter we get stuck. Its not that students don't know how to be polite the problem really lies in that students don't understand what the appropriate tone is for such emails or how to write them. Students just need to take some time to think about what they are writing instead of just sending off another text like email.
Especially in the school of drama where everything tends to be a little more casual than your typical university experience (calling our professors by their first names, and more customizable plans because of the smaller classes) we probably loose the skills that many other professors in the university expect. Like Liz, I have never used the course number or meeting times in the email (although I do use the course name frequently). Now that I am a sophomore, I believe that most of my professors know me because of the small class size.
One interesting note is the method of communication. Because the school is less formal and many of us are facebook friends with our professors, there is a temptation to ask questions via facebook or twitter. Consistently, David Boevers has pointed out that this is not really acceptable.
This is a helpful little article. I know that since we're all in the Drama school, we all know our professors by first name and deal with them on a fairly personal basis at times, which I love. In the same vein, we often send emails quickly to our professors via iPhones and don't really think twice about how we format them. While this may be OK most times for SOD professors, since we all know each other, this may not be the case with others. I will definitely take the advice from this article about putting course numbers and full names in the signature...etc. when speaking with professors during elective classes outside the school.
As for facebook and twitter, it does kind of scare me how much we rely on that for social communicating; but, it shouldn't be beyond that. I can't tell you how many times I've received information for professional shows and corporate events via facebook. Not only does it make that company look less professional, it frustrates me to no end. Facebook and twitter are just that--social networking and communication. It is not a work email.
I'm not sure why one would need to include the meeting time so specifically in your email to your professor. the article made an example of MWF 10:00. Most professors only teach a class or two, and if they teach multiple sections, and your question is class specific, why not just say, on wednesday morning's lecture, i was confused about....
I think this article asked you to include a lot of superfluous information. I often email my professors about classes, and they always know what I am talking about and which class I am taking, even though the course number does not appear.
I'm glad that this article was posted. I find so often with all the means of technology we have for communication, messages become informal or inappropriate. The art of writing has become a bit jumbled with our generation, and I'm the first to admit that I have difficulty with letters at times.
This is a good post that should be distributed to freshmen everywhere. This is a subtle skill that can come in handy when emailing professors. In some departments, such as drama, there is a less formal relationship between some faculty and the students. For someone in drama, this is a good basis for emailing professors out of the department.
Electronic communication is so second-nature to students that it's easy to slip into the casual tone one uses for communicating with friends online. Some of these tips were clearly geared toward students who need to contact professors of large lecture classes, which are very rare for SOD students, but there were definitely tips that are relevant to everybody regardless of program size.
This is an interesting list of what to do when emailing a professor. As many others have said, school of drama seems to be more laid back then other places. I think that if any of us were to put the course number in the title it would throw everyone off, seeing as how we refer to classes by name unlike many of our campus peers.
Chris's comment about facebook and twitter intrigues me to knowing when this will become acceptable...if ever.
I'm always real worried about how I email professors. I try so hard not to ruffle any feathers, i think sometimes i just come off like an idiot. I also always wondered whether it made any sense to respond with a thank you note, since it seems like it would just clutter their inbox. Now I know.
Its funny, but not many people take these things into consideration when writing to professors. I know i certainly don't think about all of these things. I guess that most of the time, people don't want to spend too long writing an email, nor does anyone want to spend too long reading one but, there should still be some formality in it. I think the most important thing in this article was in how you start your address because that sets the tone for the rest of the email.
I am not sure the entirety of this e-mail applies to CMU SOD. We are a much smaller and more intimate group. I would hope that our professors know all of our names. We do not sit in lecture classes of 50+. However, I thinks some of the clarity and please and thank you within the e-mail are always appropriate and less common, epically in such an informal department.
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