Signature for TA

[jammiedodger6873]

I just started a TA position this year and I'm trying to figure out the best way to create an email signature.  I'm a graduate assistant with teaching duties.   Would it be best to put something like:

 

Jane Doe
Teaching Assistant
Dept, Office
Email

or

Jane Doe
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Dept, Office
Email

 

Any thoughts? How do you usually go about doing these things? 

[dr. t]

Why would you put your email in a signature? Are you sending to a lot of listservs where your address would not be on the email?

 

 

My signature is:

Name (Hyperlinked to my Academia.edu page, which has all my contact details)

PhD Student, History Dept, University

Managing editor, Project (hyperlinked to project)

Edited September 10, 2015 by telkanuru

[rising_star]

My signature is crazy long, but that's also because my office hours are in it. When I was a TA, I never listed office hours in my email. In general though, I take my cues on what signature is appropriate from what others are doing. So if other TAs use "Graduate Teaching Assistant" as the title, then you should do that too.

 

Here's what I probably had.

Name

PhD student, Teaching Assistant DEPT 1111

Department Name

Office Location | Phone Number (but only if your office has one)

[TakeruK]

Firstly, I am assuming you are also a graduate student right? And that your TA work is how you are funded? Usually my advice is that we want to emphasize ourselves as scholars and researchers, not (just) TAs. So I would actually advise you to leave the TA part out and replace it with "PhD Student", "MA Student", "PhD Candidate" or whatever title best describes you!

Personally, I advocate strongly for context-specific signatures! I would only include my TA role/position when I am writing an email where I think it's important to clarify my role. For example, if I was a TA for a class with hundreds of students, multiple TAs and maybe even multiple faculty members, I might write it as

Name
Phys 101 TA, Section B
Office, Office Hours M 4pm-5pm

I also personally choose to only include my formal email signature on the most formal of emails. I don't have a default signature set in Gmail and I just type it out each time I need to include it. I work in a very small department (and my classes are tiny: 3-4 students is the norm) so in practice, I almost always sign my email with just my first name. 

 

[Between Fields]

I have a basic signature for most replies and a more elaborate signature for specific audiences, or when I'm talking more as my administrative role or my student government role. I also use the larger signature with students to cut the "Where is your office?" email out of the chain. I do include my email address because some of the ways that my emails get to students use a no reply email address. I also do a fair bit of emailing to people outside the university, and I think the more formal signature is expected more in the business world.

I definitely agree that your student role should be emphasized, as it's the most important. I have seen many, many graduate students (mostly master's students, doctoral students seem to get it better) put the degree they're going for after their name. It irks me. I've also seen graduate students being creative with their titles "Graduate Instructor" instead of "Graduate Assistant," which also irks me.

Internal:

Name
Doctoral Student & Graduate Assistant
Department of X

External:

Name
Doctoral Student & Graduate Assistant
Coordinator Title Here
Graduate Student Government Title Here
Department of X | University of X
email@email.edu | Office: Office Number | Phone: (XXX) XXX-XXXX

Pithy, Inspirational Latin Phrase

 

[Eigen]

Also, see how common signatures are at your school/in your department. 

They're rare in mine, so it makes the students who use them seem pretentious. 

If you're primarily emailing your students, they likely know you're a TA, and how to get in touch with you. 

If you're emailing someone outside your department, they probably don't need to know you're a TA. 

I personally only add a signature when the message needs it (someone who doesn't know me) and make it appropriate to that contact. 

Else, everything gets signed "Cheers, Eigen". 

[bhr]

I used a number of different signatures, depending on the need. For my students, (I'm a TA/Instructor of record) I use

First Last
Instructor
Course Name/Number/Section
Twitter Handle (because I encourage that sort of engagement)

Elsewhere in the department, or with faculty/academics elsehwere, I use the slightly more formal

First Last
Graduate Student
Department Name
University Name
Website/Twitter Handle

For contacts in industry, listservs, or when I feel like I need some extra authority/heft

First Last
Graduate Researcher
Long Ass Name of Respected Research Group that Sounds Impressive
Department Name
University Name
Website/Email/Twitter Handle









 

[juilletmercredi]

I agree with TakeruK; when I was in graduate school, my signature referred to my graduate student status, not my TA status:

Jane Smith
Doctoral Student, Underwater Basketweaving
Graduate University 

And I actually did put my email in my signature line. I changed the second line to "Doctoral Candidate" once I advanced to candidacy. (It may have said "PhD Student" and "PhD Candidate," I don't remember.

I wouldn't put "TA" in my signature because 1) it's a transient thing, meaning you might have to change your signature a couple times and 2) you want t emphasize your role as a junior colleague studying for a doctoral degree, not just a teaching assistant. Presumably anybody contacting you regarding your TA responsibilities would already know that you are a TA. And what if you get emails from conference organizers, journal editors, fellowship coordinators and other professionals? Wouldn't you rather them see "doctoral student" rather than "Teaching Assistant"?