After reading the passage below, answer the questions that follow. Be sure to "submit" your response for each question. You will initially receive full credit for each question, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your responses. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.
Email Etiquette: How Not to Communicate with Your Professor
From: student@college.edu
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2020, 11:42 A.M.
To: professor@college.edu
Subject: notes
hey, sorry i missed class . . . i had a little too much fun after the game and had a rough time waking up ;)
can you Email me your teaching notes ASAP? Thx.
Emails, when used effectively, are a valuable educational tool. They allow students to ask questions outside of class and let professors provide instant feedback. And while that’s a great thing, many professors complain that some student emails are inappropriate.
Overly casual messages bother instructors and affect their perceptions of students’ credibility (Stevens, Houser, & Cowan, 2009).
The half-hearted attempt at an apology and a thinly veiled reference to being hungover on the day of class are not appropriate. Here, as with any communication, it’s important to analyze your audience. There are some things you can say to your friends that you should not say to your professor.
Many professors complain that student emails are becoming increasingly pushy in tone. Recipients of poor grades send emails with excuses and complaints, absent students demand notes or slides, and many students send more than ten emails a day, expecting their professors to be available around the clock.
Your message should be formal. It should open with a salutation (“Dear Professor Smith”), continue with a person/class identifier (“I’m Vera Yun in your 9:30 T/R conflict class”), and close with a proper signature (“Thanks in advance, Vera”). The rules of grammar, spelling, and capitalization all apply. There should be a clear subject line that should be appropriate to the content of the email (otherwise, your professor may reject your email as spam).
Do not clutter in-boxes with a barrage of requests and give recipients plenty of time to respond. Use the tools that your professor has provided, such as the course syllabus, assignment sheets, or notes posted on a website before your email; you may find that you already have what you need. And if you skipped class, do not ask your professor what you missed; that’s what classmates are for.