Email Etiquette

Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.

Clarence Thomas

Email is a convenient way of communicating with your instructor outside of the classroom.  You will be most effective if you keep general writing rules in mind: know your message, know your audience, and tailor your message to that audience.

Because you’re communicating with a busy professional, you need to be as concise as possible.  Further, because you’re communicating via a medium that lacks the visual and auditory cues of speech, you need to maintain a respectful and professional “voice” in your emails.

On this page, you’ll find basic “netiquette” suggestions to help you write emails to your professors.

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The one email that you should never, ever send to any professor for any reason.  Never.  Ever.  EVER!

Do not ever, ever, EVER send the following email to your professors: “I was gone from class on [insert day here]. What did I miss?”  or “What’s due tomorrow?  I was gone, so I don’t know.”

While it might seem as though you are showing your professor that you’re concerned about the course work you’ve missed, you’re actually just irritating him/her.

Like you, professors are busy people with many different responsibilities: teaching, writing, researching, editing work, serving on university committees… Each one of those responsibilities begets many, many emails from many different people. So, when a professor reads emails like the above examples, he more than likely will be annoyed: an email like that assumes that it is the professor’s responsibility to help you make up the work you chose to miss. It is not; he is not your secretary and probably does not have the time to summarize an entire lecture or discussion in an email. If the information that was covered in class was important, then you should meet with your professor during his office hours to review the course work.  Further, most professors would expect that you would check an assignment list or the syllabus: where you can readily answer that question for yourself.

A better email to send would read: “I had to miss class due to a personal issue. If it is possible, I would like to meet with you on [insert date here] to discuss the course work I’ve missed. What should I review to prepare for this discussion?”

See the difference. Like the first example, this email acknowledges that you missed class and that you would like to review what you’ve missed; however, this second example doesn’t place the responsibility of making up work on your professor… it shows that you are responsible for the work you chose to miss. Further, once in that meeting, you can clarify with your professor why you missed classed and determine how the absence might affect your grade.  Finally, demonstrating that sort of initiative and personal responsibility will reflect well on you as a student.

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Be concise and to the point

Keeping your audience in mind, you’ll know that most of your instructors teach several classes, balance research interests, and department responsibilities.  Your professors appreciate a short email that briskly details your request.

Demonstrate that you are aware of the syllabus.

Most professors put a good deal of time and effort into their syllabi, and most syllabi answers general questions about making up tests, late papers, missing class, etc.  So before you email your professor, read your syllabus and other appropriate handouts.  You might find that the answer to your question is detailed in a syllabus, a handout, or a class website.

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Identify yourself

Towards the beginning of the semester (before Spring Break in the spring or October in the fall), state your section (i.e. T/Th 8:00) in addition to your first and last name.  Towards the end of the semester, you can probably assume your professor has connected your name to your face, so you can just use your first and last name.

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Use the subject line

The subject line is that little bar where you get to detail exactly what your email is about.  A blank subject line or a vague subject line like “question” isn’t helpful to your professors.

Be as specific as possible: “question about due date for final project” or “can I stop by your office on Weds. morning?”

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Avoid writing in all capitals

Writing in all capitals is the electronic way of SHOUTING.  Do not shout at your professors (no matter how much you feel they deserve it).

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R u wrtng a txt msg? or an email?

At the beginning of this page, I mentioned that email writing follows the general writing rules: know your message, know your audience, and tailor your message to that audience.

When you’re writing an email to your professor, you’re writing to someone who chose to get more than one college degree, to someone who spends his time around literate and learned folks, and to someone who might have a high degree of reverence for the written word…  you can safely assume that using truncated or abbreviated words in an email will be as grating as nails on a chalkboard.

In other words, avoid things like “omg” or “wtf” or “u” for “you” or “i” for “I” or “hey” for “Hello Mrs. Olson.”  Finally, emoticons :) ;) <3 are appropriate for your friends, family, or significant others but not your professors.

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Use “paragraph breaks” effectively

When you’re writing an email to a busy professor, you can be sure that you’ll get your points across if you draw attention to them by breaking them up into different paragraph.  Look at the email from “Jane Student” at the bottom of this page.  Do you see how she breaks up different points into different paragraphs?

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When in doubt, err on the side of formality and mind your manners.

If you’re unsure about how to address your professor (first name?  last name only?  Mr.?  Mrs.?  Mrs.?  Prof.?  Dr.?), you’re better of being wrong but too polite.

Generally, “Prof. ____” works for all professors on campus.

Also, keep in mind that “please” and “thank you” go a long way.

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Use proper spelling and grammar

I doubt this imperative needs an explanation.

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Read these examples

Take a look at the two emails (excerpted from here).  If you had limited time, to which email would you chose to respond?

Email Example #1:

Professor Awesome,

This is Jane Student from your 8:30 TA session (57410).

I will be out of town this coming Thursday and was wondering if I could take the quiz early. I am free during your office hours on Wednesday if that is acceptable.

Also, I had a question about Taylor series. Specifically, I was doing problem 12in Section 12.10. It asks you to compute the Taylor series for f(x)=xˆ3 where a=-1. I did this and found that my Taylor series only had three terms, but all of the examples I remember from class have an infinite number of terms. Did I do something wrong?

Thank you.

—Jane Student

Jane.Student@University.edu

Email Example #2:

hey i missed classe last weke so whats due in class this thursday jane

You’ll see that the first email from Jane Student following basic writing guidelines (know your message, know your audience, and tailor your message to that audience), and she also identifies herself appropriately, details her questions in different paragraphs, and uses appropriate grammar.  This is the sort of email the breeds good will in your professor’s response: because he/she can immediately identify who you are and what you need, the professor is more likely to respond quickly and positively.

In the second example, the student hasn’t bothered to properly address the professor, the student hasn’t respected basic spelling/mechanical rules, and the question is almost indecipherable.  This is the sort of email that makes professors unlikely to want to work with you; in fact, this is the sort of email that might go ignored because the emailer is unidentifiable and the email itself is rude and difficult to read.

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Use a template!

On a final note… After reading all of this, are you still unsure about how to create an email for a professor?

Try using the templates below to help get you started.  Fill in the blanks with information pertinent to your email.

Be sure to type the subject line in the subject bar.

Subject Line: Question about ________

Hello Mr./Mrs./Dr. ___________________,

I am _________ ______________ from your ______ class.  I have a question about ______.  My question is: ______?  I have tried looking ____ and _____ for answers, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

Thank you,

First Name Last Name

Subject Line:  Meeting outside of office hours

Hello Mr./Mrs./Dr. ___________________,

I am _________ ______________ from your ______ class.  If it is possible, I would like to meet with you outside your office hours.  I can meet on _________, ___________, or _________.  I would like talk about __________.  I will bring my ______, _______, and ________.  Is there anything else I should bring to the meeting?

Thank you,

First Name Last Name

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Further Reading