How to approach a professor by email

[Adelaide9216]

Hello,

this is maybe a stupid question, but how would you write a polite email to a university professor regardless of the topic? I realize as I am looking back at my undergraduate studies that I might have offended some professors by accident because my emails did not come across as polite enough. But truth to be told, When I first started as an undergrad, there is a language barrier for me and lack of knowlege of university culture + difference in francophone versus anglophone culture explains it but I don't know if they got that and I do not want to repeat the same mistake in the future. Apparently, lots lots of students do not know how to approach a professor by email and come across as impolite or too "friendly". Any thoughts or advice on this?

[ThousandsHardships]

Every professor has his/her standards. It's hard to predict from the get-go. A few things I've picked up over the years:

1. Use a greeting. Whether it's "dear" (more formal) or "hi" (less formal), it's always better to use one than to not use it.
2. Sign your email. Don't ever leave it hanging just like that.
3. Don't get too personal or emotional, unless the emotion happens to be excitement, in which case feel free to express yourself.
4. Keep it short and simple. If the professor needs to scroll to see the entire content of your email, then reserve it for an in-person conversation.
5. Don't forget to thank them, wish them well, tell them you hope all's well if you haven't been in contact for a while, etc.

Other than that, it really depends on the individual. I had one professor who got pissed at me for saying "you guys," which is a completely normal way of voicing a second person plural that I and most others around me use without thinking. She found it way too informal, but I disagree with her on that. I'm conscious about using it now, but I could never see it as offensive, just as I would never get offended when my own students don't do the above five points I mentioned. For me personally, the only way a student could offend me is if he/she targets me personally for something beyond my control.

Speaking of which, one important tip in being polite is to ask, but never complain about things that are not up to the professor to decide.

Oh, and from my own experience, a huge hindrance for me has been the feeling that I need to explain what I said or did when I didn't feel like I did it right. More often than not, the best way to remedy that type of situation is simply to let it go and do better next time. The professor will forget about it, but not when you yourself are unable to let it go. Here I'm talking more about myself than about you, but I'm just putting it out there because it definitely seems like you're a very introspective person. So am I, as a matter of fact. And while this trait can most definitely work to our advantage, it's also very easy for us to overthink situations and make them worse than they actually are by not letting go and moving on.

Edited April 10, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[Adelaide9216]

Thank you for the thoughtful advice! 

[fuzzylogician]

Good advice above. Other random thoughts: 

• If your instructor has a PhD, call them Dr./Prof. XX, not Mr. or Ms. (This commonly happens to female professors and is incredibly annoying.) 
• It's better to err on the side of being too polite than not polite enough. So use Prof. Last Name if it's someone you've never met or who hasn't invited you to use their first name. In some programs and academic cultures first names are the norm, so if you know that to be the case, use whatever is the norm. But when in doubt, err on the polite side. 
• Don't give unnecessary details or explanations for your request/question. (E.g., if you're a student in my class and you're sick and need an extension, it's fine to just say you're sick; I really don't need to know how much time you spent in the bathroom and what you did there...)
• Use a professional email address, and sign your name. Sometimes I'll get an email from "hotpuppy59723@comcast.net" and I don't know what to begin to do with that. 
• The most useful emails have just one main point, and it's front and center (in the title, even, if possible). If you make multiple requests and/or ask multiple questions, there is a much greater chance that some will be forgotten or ignored. 

[ThousandsHardships]

13 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

Use a professional email address, and sign your name. Sometimes I'll get an email from "hotpuppy59723@comcast.net" and I don't know what to begin to do with that.

I agree with all your points. I have had a co-worker, though, whose last name looks and sounds almost exactly like the stage name of a very famous and controversial popular singer (I won't mention which for the purpose of privacy). Her email user name therefore plays on this similarity and has as a result constantly been the subject of criticism from prospective employers who don't realize that this was her actual name.

[Adelaide9216]

1 hour ago, ThousandsHardships said:

I agree with all your points. I have had a co-worker, though, whose last name looks and sounds almost exactly like the stage name of a very famous and controversial popular singer (I won't mention which for the purpose of privacy). Her email user name therefore plays on this similarity and has as a result constantly been the subject of criticism from prospective employers who don't realize that this was her actual name.

How sad. I feel you, my last name literally means "Suffering" in French. But it is my last name. I've received so many negative comments from people, classmates and even teachers across the years because of it..but hopefully, it has never hindered me from getting a job opportunity. 

[fuzzylogician]

3 hours ago, ThousandsHardships said:

I agree with all your points. I have had a co-worker, though, whose last name looks and sounds almost exactly like the stage name of a very famous and controversial popular singer (I won't mention which for the purpose of privacy). Her email user name therefore plays on this similarity and has as a result constantly been the subject of criticism from prospective employers who don't realize that this was her actual name.

Two things. That (made up) email address isn't a professional one, and not coincidentally, people who use such emails tend to not sign their name. Sign your name, and I'll use it and not be confused. 

[dumbunny]

19 hours ago, ThousandsHardships said:

Every professor has his/her standards. It's hard to predict from the get-go. A few things I've picked up over the years:

1. Use a greeting. Whether it's "dear" (more formal) or "hi" (less formal), it's always better to use one than to not use it.

Is "Dear" the norm in academia? I ask from a position of ignorance. I've always avoided "Dear" in professional emails because it sounds too personal to my ear. As a result, I open my emails with "Professor ____," instead. Is this considered odd or a faux pas in academic settings, though?

[ThousandsHardships]

1 hour ago, dumbunny said:

Is "Dear" the norm in academia? I ask from a position of ignorance. I've always avoided "Dear" in professional emails because it sounds too personal to my ear. As a result, I open my emails with "Professor ____," instead. Is this considered odd or a faux pas in academic settings, though?

There are a lot of people who use "dear" and it's definitely not considered personal. I thought the same as you at first, but then I found out that almost all the European people I know use it and many consider "hi" to be too informal. Also, this application season, it seems to me that most professors have addressed me with "dear" and so I just reciprocate it unless they start doing otherwise. So far the only one who has deviated from "dear" in my dozens upon dozens of email exchanges is a third-year PhD student that I've been in communication with. All of the professors just kept using "dear." I don't think they'd be offended if you used something else though. Most wouldn't be that picky.

It could be regional too. California's been my home for seventeen years and I honestly found it super odd when one of my professors (who was Scottish) kept using "dear" on her emails, but now it seems like it's the norm elsewhere. And I have had a couple of French people comment on how they found our "hi" and "hello" greetings to be too informal for a professional email.

Edited April 11, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[fuzzylogician]

In my field: From most to least formal - 1. Dear (Prof/Dr) LastName. 2. Dear FirstName 3. Hello FirstName 4. Hi FirstName (or just Hi!). 

You get (1) from strangers and students, as well as university bureaucrats. (2) for most official correspondence with colleagues I don't know well. Soon after (2) we usually move to (4). (3) is somewhere inbetween and used when you're not entirely sure what to do, and also when emailing groups. 

In any event, "dear" is not personal at all in this context. I wouldn't consider "Prof XX," a faux pas, but I'd assume it's someone who's not too versed in these kinds of emails.