email etiquette

[Descartes]

Very common, in email in general.  I get the same from the departmental secretaries, from friends, etc.  I think from students it's even more likely because they are unsure how to address us — "Dr. Hegemony" or "Professor Hegemony" or "Frieda" or whatever.

Somebody probably bit the student's head off after he addressed her as "Mrs. instructor," so after that, he started just addressing all instructors as "Dear Dr. instructor," but then was told not all have doctorates so now it's easier to just avoid titles or salutations altogether.

[Caracal]

Like other posters, I have kept specific email instructions on all of my course syllabi for over 12 years now. Information on how to send professional email to me. What such a message looks like. What email I won't respond to. What email is unprofessional.

Emails sent to me that are incomplete (e.g. lacking personal identifiers, no subject lines) are dumped into an email folder titled "bad emails." The only response I give to those is a quick robot-looking response that states that their message was incorrect and archived into a bad email folder. Students are notified about this during first-day orientation.

This is one of those things that I really don't have the time, or more honestly, the energy for. My job is not to teach email etiquette. As long as emails aren't addressed "hey bozo" I just respond to them.

[hamburger]

One of my colleagues (who worked in the business college) actually marked down a student's grade if emails were not transmitted in business etiquette. Communicating professionally was made into a component of that course's assessment. I really liked that professor.

Your colleague is my hero. How to do that without getting complaints from students? We are told not to penalize this and that. We cannot penalize students for not attending class. We cannot penalize students for bad attitudes. We can only give marks based on their answers to questions in tests/quizzes/exams.

In another course, each group was given a kit in the lab. I asked them to throw away the box in the lab many times last week. Nobody listened. Same as today. I mentioned that about 10 times and nobody listened. At the end, after I said that they would get a zero in the test (which I cannot do in reality) if they did not throw away their box by the end of the lab, one group still left the box there. Colleagues told me that students here don't have the mental capacity to process information. They need to be told over and over again. Some of them still cannot get it at the end. In the past, I learned that even answers were presented in front of them, some people actually could not get the answers right! 

What is CMS anyway?

[aside]

One of my colleagues (who worked in the business college) actually marked down a student's grade if emails were not transmitted in business etiquette. Communicating professionally was made into a component of that course's assessment. I really liked that professor.

Your colleague is my hero. How to do that without getting complaints from students? We are told not to penalize this and that. We cannot penalize students for not attending class. We cannot penalize students for bad attitudes. We can only give marks based on their answers to questions in tests/quizzes/exams.

In another course, each group was given a kit in the lab. I asked them to throw away the box in the lab many times last week. Nobody listened. Same as today. I mentioned that about 10 times and nobody listened. At the end, after I said that they would get a zero in the test (which I cannot do in reality) if they did not throw away their box by the end of the lab, one group still left the box there. Colleagues told me that students here don't have the mental capacity to process information. They need to be told over and over again. Some of them still cannot get it at the end. In the past, I learned that even answers were presented in front of them, some people actually could not get the answers right! 

What is CMS anyway?

Course Management System, like Canvas or Blackboard.

[bio-nonymous]

What really annoys me is ghosting. Rather than decline an opportunity or say no to a direct request, some students will simply never respond, even after a back and forth exchange. I think it is rather strange and unprofessional to simply ignore other people, but I suppose it is easier to not respond than to actually write an email saying thanks but no thanks-->but it isn't polite!

[Aster]

Like other posters, I have kept specific email instructions on all of my course syllabi for over 12 years now. Information on how to send professional email to me. What such a message looks like. What email I won't respond to. What email is unprofessional.

Emails sent to me that are incomplete (e.g. lacking personal identifiers, no subject lines) are dumped into an email folder titled "bad emails." The only response I give to those is a quick robot-looking response that states that their message was incorrect and archived into a bad email folder. Students are notified about this during first-day orientation.

This is one of those things that I really don't have the time, or more honestly, the energy for. My job is not to teach email etiquette. As long as emails aren't addressed "hey bozo" I just respond to them.

But this is *exactly why* I do it. Because I don't have the time or energy to work out or respond to incomplete emails.

To steal and adapt a popular phrase, "I can't care more about a student's email messaging than they can".

So here's my extra effort, mostly all front-loaded and automated.
- Five minutes during first-day orientation for each class. Done.
- Specific language in the course syllabus. Done once for each class and left alone. Every few years I might tweak and adjust a bit.

[Aster]

One of my colleagues (who worked in the business college) actually marked down a student's grade if emails were not transmitted in business etiquette. Communicating professionally was made into a component of that course's assessment. I really liked that professor.

Your colleague is my hero. How to do that without getting complaints from students? We are told not to penalize this and that. We cannot penalize students for not attending class. We cannot penalize students for bad attitudes. We can only give marks based on their answers to questions in tests/quizzes/exams.

This was a business course. Correct email etiquette could easily be incorporated into viable assessment in this case. I probably would not be able to pull this off myself.

[lightning]

In an email that I sent last night, I prepended "Dear" in the salutation, which makes me look old. (At least I didn't follow it with a colon.) When in doubt, it's always best to err on the side of being formal and over-dressed.

[fishbrains]

I don't angst too much over the formatting, but I do tell students that I generally won't respond in any real length to an email that doesn't have a question in it. For example, if I receive a student email that says, "This essay is hard" I will reply with, "Yes, many students find this to be a difficult assignment. Do you have a question for me?" Then I'll point out in class the next time that I'm not trying to be an a-hole, but neither can I read minds.

Sometimes the formatting in an email is a little off-putting, but the D2L/BrightSpace email function totally sucks--especially when using a phone. I'm just glad students can get the email to me, given their busy lives (I'm at an all-commuter CC) and D2L suckiness.

Of course, there have been a couple of incoherent ranting emails where I've wanted to respond, "You need to change your D2L password because some socially-inept $hithead is sending rambling, unintelligent emails in 2nd-grade English using your account, and you might find yourself in the Dean's office because of this idiot." Gotta play nice, though.

[Aster]

Someone sent me an incomplete email this week that wasn't even using the college email system (which all students are required to use).

No, this email came from a corporate for-profit college email system. I threw up a little in my mouth before sending that email into the "bad email" folder.

[newprofwife]

Yep, super common. Keep in mind that they are sending you an email on their smart phones in a panic as they cross the street and they are typing instead of looking both ways for traffic :)

[Hibush]

Someone sent me an incomplete email this week that wasn't even using the college email system (which all students are required to use).

No, this email came from a corporate for-profit college email system. I threw up a little in my mouth before sending that email into the "bad email" folder.

Sometimes Outlook gets it in it's head that Cmd-V means not paste, but send. Happened twice today. I hope those incomplete missives went directly in the Bad Email folder.