Email Etiquette: Guidelines for Writing to Your Professors

The way in which you communicate and present yourself when writing to your professors is extremely important.

When you write to a professor, you should view it as a professional exchange. How you choose to interact conveys your level of seriousness and professionalism. It not only affects how your professor views you, but it also determines how much time they are going to take to deal with your issues. If you come off as rude, clueless, or irresponsible, then it will affect how your professor responds. This will have consequences for how the professor interacts with you and possibly also how they evaluate you. As with any professional interaction, it is in your best interest to be respectful, polite, and courteous when communicating with professors. Your emails, and the words you use, are a reflection of you and your attitudes.

Here are a few basic tips that you should follow when emailing your professors or instructors.

View an Email to a Professor as a Professional Interaction. In many ways, writing to a professor is no different from writing a business letter. Keep in mind that you are not texting with a friend or writing a casual message to an acquaintance -- this is a professional interaction with someone who is an expert in their field and in an official position to evaluate you and grade your work. Your emails should contain the proper parts of letter, convey respect and courtesy, and reflect the fact you are a serious student. Here are a few specific tips:
Begin your email by addressing your professor by title and name, and end your email with a closing and your signature. A message that begins without a greeting or ends without a signature could be viewed as rudeness or indifference on the part of the writer. Refer to your professor by the title "Professor" or "Dr.". If your professor has a Ph.D, you should address them as "Professor LastName" or "Dr. LastName". If they do not have a Ph.D., or if you are not sure, address them simply as "Professor LastName". Unless explicitly instructed to do so, never address your professor by their first name. Begin your email with a greeting addressing the professor politely, such as "Dear Professor Smith" or "Hi Dr. Jones". After your message, end with a closing and signature, such as "Sincerely, YourName" or "Thanks, YourName". If the professor does not know you well, use your full name. If the professor knows you or you've spoke in person a few times, your first name will suffice.

"Good English, well spoken and well written, will open more doors than a college degree. Bad English will slam doors you didn't even know existed."
--- William Raspberry

Use an account with an appropriate email address. Ideally, you should use your university email account. Cutesy, offensive, or childish email addresses are inappropriate in professional interactions, and it is a big mistake if you use one. If you have an email address of the form sweet_darlin_nikki@yahoo.com or cutie_pie_98@hotmail.com or mikey_g@aol.com then it's time to retire that address in favor of something more grown up and more professional. If you don't want to use your university email address, create a Gmail account of the form firstname.lastname@gmail.com . If you like, you can forward email from your other accounts to your new one. Your email address, including both the username and the domain name, is a reflection of your professionalism. (See this comic by The Oatmeal.) In addition, silly email addresses have a much higher chance of getting flagged as spam and never making it to your professor's inbox.

Do not email to ask basic questions you can answer for yourself. If you don't know what a word means, try looking it up in the index of the textbook. If you don't know how to do an exercise, check your notes to see if a similar one was done in lecture. Class policies, such as office hours, assignment details, writing guidelines, grading criteria, policies on missed classes and exams, etc. are almost always addressed in the syllabus. If something is still not clear, then by all means ask your question --- but first attempt to answer the question yourself and only write if you need further clarification.

Do not use your email to vent, rant, or whine. If you have a complaint, or are not happy about something, explain yourself calmly and ask if anything can be done. You may very well be frustrated about a situation, but sending an angry email will not help things. In situations like this, it is also often more helpful to talk to the professor in person rather than send an email -- particularly since tone and intent can often be misinterpreted in emails.

This comic by Jorge Cham of Ph.D. comics nicely summarizes many of the issues discussed above: