This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
(The idea for this document and much of the advice comes from Michael Leddy's blog, Orange Crate Art, and his post "How to email a Professor.") Mucho thanks in advance.
Email is a wonderful thing, and I very much like using it to communicate with everyone, including my students. By far, email is the easiest way of getting in touch with me because when I am logged on to the internet (which is pretty much all all day long), I am checking my email.
But in my experience, a lot of students don't know how to send an effective email to a professor. Or at least to me. Making matters more complicated is the fact that I receive a lot of email. And I mean A LOT-- at least 100 messages a day, and oftentimes more.
So, in an effort to help you contact me via email effectively, I've written up these brief instructions on how to send me email:
Use your EMU email account, or at least use the same email account all term. I would encourage you to always use your EMU account because that is a signal to me that it is a legitimate email message. If you insist on using a non-EMU email account, make sure you use the same email address in emailing me throughout the term.
If you want to use an email system other than EMU's system, I'd encourage you to use Yahoo's set-up for email. I would discourage using HotMail for all sorts of different reasons.
Don't use an email account with a dumb username. For example, I once had a student who had an email address that was something like "beeridiot@hotmail.com." That's just not that smart.
Have a subject line and make sure the subject line is meaningful. Getting email messages without a subject line is one of my pet peeves, so don't do that. But beyond that, make sure the subject line is useful. Remember, I have a lot of students and I receive a lot of email, and the way I initially sort through my email is with the subjects.
Don't have a subject line like "Question." Rather, Do have a subject line "Question about First Essay English 121 section 4."
Have an appropriate greeting. This is not critical, but it's probably good to start an email with something like "Hi Steve," or "Hello Professor Krause."
Get to your point in the beginning of your email message. Email is supposed to be a brief format, so get to the point quickly.
Before sending it, take a second to proofread your message. Besides the basics (you know, some version of decent spelling, clear sentences, etc.), you want to make sure your message will make sense to me. I frequently receive email messages from perfectly intelligent students and colleagues that are dashed off too quickly and end up causing more confusion than clarity. You can do a lot to avoid this by just taking a second to re-read your message before sending it.
Be sure that your name appears in the message (perhaps at the bottom as a "signature file") and be sure that you note what class you are in. Keep in mind that if your email address is something like jsmith12@emich.edu or, even worse, boopy451@yahoo.com, I will not automatically know who you are unless you tell me.
Don't send attachments that I am not expecting. If I ask you to send me an attachment, that's fine; but don't just send something without telling me.
Along these lines, don't send emails to me (or really, to anyone) that have a lot of decorations-- background colors, little decorations, icons, etc. That's another pet peeve of mine.
Don't send me email after email after email. Like I said, I am perfectly happy to receive and answer email from students. However, I have had some students in the past who got into the habit of emailing me several times a day. Try to limit yourselves.
Give me about 24 hours to respond, especially at off-hours. For example, if you email me at 11 pm, don't expect me to answer you quickly because I am usually done working and often sleeping at 11 pm at night. The same can often be said about weekends.
If you don't hear from me within 48 hours, try emailing me again. I sometimes lose track of emails I receive (did I mention I get a lot of email?), and beyond that, sometimes student email is designated by my email software as "junk." It's nothing personal, and usually, it's because it is an email message from an unfamiliar address or a vague subject line. So if you don't hear from me within 48 hours, try again.
Steven D. Krause | stevendkrause.com | December 2005
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.