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At the start of my teaching career, when I was fresh out of graduate school, I briefly considered trying to pass myself off as a cool professor. Luckily, I soon came to my senses and embraced my true identity as a young fogey.
After one too many students called me by my first name and sent me email that resembled a drunken late-night Facebook post, I took a very fogeyish step. I began attaching a page on etiquette to every syllabus: basic rules for how to address teachers and write polite, grammatically correct emails.
Over the past decade or two, college students have become far more casual in their interactions with faculty members. My colleagues around the country grumble about students' sloppy emails and blithe informality.
[...] Sociologists who surveyed undergraduate syllabuses from 2004 and 2010 found that in 2004, 14 percent addressed issues related to classroom etiquette; six years later, that number had more than doubled, to 33 percent. This phenomenon crosses socio-economic lines. My colleagues at Stanford gripe as much as the ones who teach at state schools, and students from more privileged backgrounds are often the worst offenders.
-- submitted from IRC
Source: The New York Times
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:05PM (6 children)
A lot of these things are kind of personal. With emails, I insist on them mentioning their roster name and class every time, just so that I can quickly locate their record. If that information is not present, I refuse to process the rest and instantly fire a boilerplate request for clarification. Saves my time :)
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:23PM (4 children)
I completely understand that policy, and if we were talking about a class of 100 students or something, I'd be grateful for the same thing.
When you're teaching a 10-student seminar and talk to the student personally almost every class, it's a bit odd to receive an email like that repeatedly from the same student. But I never thought that they may have just been "trained" to do that in other classes....
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:27PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:43PM (1 child)
True -- the random Yahoo or Gmail accounts can be a mystery. I have on occasion received a message from "groovychick2014@yahoo.com" or some address like that with a request for clarification on a syllabus and no signed name... which was confusing. I guess I haven't encountered the combo of random Yahoo account AND no signed name at the end enough to make me institute a formal policy.
But that's another thing that younger people maybe should be taught to think about -- using bizarre or inappropriate email address names for "official" correspondence. I'm sure when they were 14 it sounded great to sign up for "toughstud843" as a username, but I always find it a little weird to get email from students with addresses like that.
(Score: 2) by tfried on Tuesday May 16 2017, @08:34PM
Sorry if I'm making wrong assumptions on your age, but do note that you and I did not even have an email account at age 14, or at least not one that we actually used (you do need someone to communicate with, after all). As irritating as it is, the issue of teenage usernames sticking around is simply something our generation never had to worry about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @07:46PM
Maybe they are trying not to be presumptuous that their 10 student class is all that you look after. For all they know, you have 10 ten-student classes.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:01PM
Seems you found the formula for how to handle noise so you get a better signal-to-noise deal ;-)
Anyway I think setting a proper subject in personal emails, making an effort on how a text is formulated and grammar such that other people can understand and interpret what is being written and of course stating the request in clear terms is a minimum in most communications.
Titles etc may however be cumbersome. Kind of reminds me of code written by well paid people in suits with the right degrees that can't even compete in performance with a pimple ridden 17-year old that knows what he's doing. At the core of it is that competence and curiosity is key.