Email etiquette

[avflinsch]

On 12/16/2015 at 8:14 PM, Arcadian said:

Efficiency is what matters, people, not archaic traditions

Absolutely agree with this. I have always seen email as being very different from traditional written correspondence, emails should be short and to the point.

[TakeruK]

2 hours ago, avflinsch said:

Absolutely agree with this. I have always seen email as being very different from traditional written correspondence, emails should be short and to the point.

They should be short and to the point, but there is a big difference between:

11 hours ago, VulpesZerda said:

(no subject) Hey where is the final???

and:

(subject: PHYS 101 final exam) Hi TakeruK, where is the PHYS101 final? 

---

Both examples are short emails and get right to the point. However, for an instructor, one is actually worded in a way that you can answer, while the other could be tough to figure out. I think it's just a matter of respect that if you are asking for someone's time, you should provide information necessary instead of relying on or requiring the instructor to figure out what class you meant! Of course, I don't think this is even an appropriate question---a student should not be asking the instructor where the exam is, unless for some reason, there has been a big miscommunication (see: It's in the syllabus!)

When I think of email etiquette, I don't think of formal letter writing. As in my "proper" example above, I don't care if the student signs the email or not because 1) Gmail cuts off the signature anyways and 2) most modern email accounts have names set up so I could see who wrote the email from the header info (exception: If the student is using a university email and did not set this up, or if they did not provide their name to the email provider, then the student should sign it). I also don't need there to be whatever number of spaces---for a quick question like the one above, everything in 1 line is fine with me. I do think a proper greeting is required though because email is not text message and if you would not greet your professor as "hey you" in the classroom or hallways, then don't do it in email.

Finally, my last point is that there are lots of different levels of formality that you can use with email. When I send one to my spouse, it's basically a text message that I am too lazy to get my phone out for (especially since I find typing much faster than texting). Or, if I am waiting to meet up with a friend and am running late, I might just shoot them a quick email without any greeting etc. These are all great uses of email and take advantage of the fact that we can communicate almost at the speed of light! 

But that doesn't mean this level of formality is acceptable for every communication. The formality of communication between two people does not only depend on the format it's sent, but also the relationship of the two parties. I do not expect students to send me text message-like responses, whether it's an actual text message, an email, or in the classroom. I'm not sure why this is tough for students to understand---we figured this out with telephones! Even though the medium is the same, we communicate pretty differently talking on the phone with our friends, our parents, and our bosses.