Before coming to college, I didn’t really use email that much. I would just much rather text and call than email someone. But now that’s the way I communicate with my professors. I don’t think that emails will ever become a legacy media because it is used as a professional way to communicate through a business, school system, universities and much more.
Emailing a professor is way more professional than sending them a text. Students today, like to communicate through texting, Facebook, Twitter and other things that are informal and are personal ways of communication. I think universities are so email-crazy because it’s a formal way of communication. I think they haven’t embraced things the that students like to use to communicate to others because those are informal personal ways of communication and it would be weird, to me personally to text a professor. Since students don’t use email that often I feel like some people may not approach an email in a formal/professional way and would just approach it like they are communicating to a friend through texting or Facebook. That could then offend or come across rude the professor and he may not even want to respond to your email.
At first when I got to college, I didn’t really know email etiquette and I would have to ask people to read my emails to make sure it didn’t come across wrong or I wasn’t going to offend the professor or the person I was emailing. After reading the article, I realized that I wasn’t putting the “Element #4,” the author was talking about to make the professor feel like he does have some life outside of being a professor. Starting the email off with something like, “I hope you are having a great weekend!” to me sounds like you care for the professor/class. So now I will implement that into my emails. Since I have this resource for email etiquette, I will most likely refer to it from now on.
How to Email Your Professor (without being annoying)**
Every semester, I see the tweets and Facebook posts. My professor friends, they are annoyed. Their students do not know how to write emails, they say. What they really mean is that their students…
Chandler, I like the way that this points out why students’ unfamiliarity with email can be a weakness that turns into an advantage: because they’re less comfortable with it, they can learn new rules for communicating professionally.
(And personally, I think Element #4 is the *least* important—but then maybe I have no life!)