Dear undergraduates (email etiquette)

[PiratePanda]

I understand that you are keen to start this new episode in your life. But please try to refrain from sending me a peremptory email about your timetable and an aggressive follow-up two hours later to ask why I haven't answered 1) on a Sunday morning 2) 3 weeks before the start of the year 3) when I know you've been told timetables will be provided in induction week and 4) I'm not in charge of them anyway (and I don't know why you thought a random lecturer would be the right person to email).

Also, my name is not "Hi".

What is wrong with people these days? Does no one teach email etiquette?

No I wouldn't expect a reply on a weekend or necessarily within 2/3 days for a general enquiry

As a long term SAHM, I hate having to send formal emails. I tend to err on the side of cation and put Dear and kind regards, but I'm never sure if I'm right.

No idea if DDs have anymore idea. DH probably does have. He does do work emails.

It's just as well we didn't have Email at university as most of our Emails to the science registry would have began

Hi please could you ensure this email is forwarded to Ms X because the rest of you are utterly usless

Science postgrads used to sneak a peek round the door and if we couldn't see Ms X we left and went another time.

We never worked out how a RG university survived with the admin staff it had, but lab techs, students and lectures all dreaded anything that had to go beyond the dept. office, to faculty level.

because

I thought Dear Smelly was outdated in formal emails because it's addressing someone twice - the "to" is already on the email. In DHs line of work the etiquitte is not to repeat the name as people know it's to them from the To line, but to start with Hello and finish with either Regards or Thank you depending on context

From doing a college course the emails TO students from admin usually start with Hi Smelly, and finsh with regards so it's logical (and also polite) to reply in the same tone/format that the institute has used when writing to you no?

also on the flip side I find it polite if people who recieve a large volume of emails in a professional capacity have autoreplies if they're out of office. Most my uni lecturers did.

This professor instituted a no-email policy for her students, with some success. In the US though, where I believe student emails are even more frequent, needy, ill-informed and poorly-written.

I do have one colleague who makes frequent use of 'Let Me Google That for You'.

Surely though, one of the great advantages of e-mail (over a phone call say) is that you can send them when it's convenient to you - even if that were 3am - because you are not disturbing the recipient. The recipient opens them when it's convenient for them.

I was mortified once when I had to e-mail a teacher at my ds's school about something - expecting them to look at it when they were back at work on the Monday - and they replied on the Sunday afternoon. I hope they didn't think I was expecting and answer over the weekend, it's just that I'm at work when they are, so have to do things to do with my dc, outside of my working hours.

Obviously in the OP, the issue is the chasing up 2hrs later, but this is more in response to the last few e-mails.

I work in a uni, and it never ceases to amaze me the number of students who email in late on Friday night, then start sending hourly emails throughout the weekend complaining that their previous email hasn't been answered.

smelly I don't know what other places are like but addressing people as Dear Chem does have a purpose. Most emails here seem to be copied to the world, their significant other and their dog, so having a salutation at least indicates who the email was aimed at. Add the fact that some senior staff seem to not understand the difference between "reply" and "reply all" and everybody has an inbox full of stuff that they don't need. Then you get students joining in to ask questions the answer to which they have written on a piece of paper but I have to look up and suddenly the whole day is email. (I know the punctuation of this message is largely non-existent but it is freshers week; pity me).

I don't understand the idea that the To line replaces Dear X. I know the email is for me, in the same way I know a letter that the postwoman puts through my letterbox is for someone in our household. The letter still says Dear Mimsy.

I used to have an admin job with postgrad students. Quite extraordinary how informal some of the enquiry emails were.

I think my favourite ever was this one (MSc title very slightly edited to keep my anonymity!):

I wanna apply as an international student. Msc in psychology. .my ielts score is 6.5.have dun bachelors psycho honours. Nd 1 yr master in psychology in india

That's it. That was the entire email. No introduction, no sign off. I'm afraid even being an overseas student doesn't excuse this.

Mind you, I made a rod for my own back with the students. One of them rang up once with a query and I said mildly that the answer was in the programme handbook. 'I'm sure it is', he said, 'but I knew you would know and it was just so much easier to make a quick call to you.' Sigh.

An appropriate application for a PhD in my lab does NOT include saying that you 'sensed my aura from my webpage'

If you use Gmail and want your emails to arrive at a civilised time, Boomerang for Gmail is fantastic. I often work late at night, but I can queue my emails up to arrive at a time that won't frighten people.

I supervised lots of placement students and found myself quite concerned by educated adults still having their parents calling me because something wasn't working properly - usually the student, i have to say

The great gem of all time from our email enquiries is this one:

I am woodcock to deal my mastery

I suppose I can say this illustrates a point of etiquette, namely 'Don't use Google translate to write an email like this!'. The student was Spanish speaking and would have required fluent English to do the Master's course she was enquiring about. This email didn't suggest she had it.

Extensive research amongst my colleagues and friends established that there is a Spanish word 'becada', which means both 'having a scholarship' (adjective, feminine ending) and 'woodcock' (noun), so we concluded that what she meant to say was that she had a scholarship to undertake her master’s degree.

Frateral - that is brilliant!! Tell me your speciality is parapsychology?!

I googled e-mail etiquette. Some useful results but this one seems appropriate here.

That is rude. It's like getting notes from parents at school that start "Dear teacher..." It's even worse when it's from someone I've taught for 5 years!

Dear Student,

It is obviously convenient for you to have one email address that you have had since you were 16 and which everybody finds easy to remember because it is so descriptive of your personal appearance. However, [email protected] is not a very professional email address. I feel you would be better off switching to something more staid.

Kind regards,

Your Personal Tutor

One of my colleagues tried to get this point across in a tutorial. The student concerned would not listen. This proved a good indicator of her ability to listen to advice all through the course.

VirtualPointyHat Crop Genetics, alas, so we were looking for evidence of a more scientific approach...

This read wholly confirms my views of most university lecturers.

Well obviously I agree Greengrow; we are overworked and under appreciated, but maybe you had something else in mind?

Love it, Mimsy. I received an email containing a serious proposition for an academic collaboration from a perfectly serious and well-qualified sounding woman; the fact that she was still using an email address perilously close to "[email protected]" rather undermined her, unfortunately.

Brilliant Fratercula - maybe the genes control the propensity to certain auras in crops. Probably code for amino acids with different phosphorescent properties