Mastodon
List

I like getting email. I don't like getting emails written as text messages. Besides showing very little respect for the reader, receiving emails which aren't written properly forces the reader to decode just what your correspondent actually wants from you, wasting their time and frustrating them. Sometimes the intention is obvious, like the email I received two years ago.

Hi wht cum up n exm thx

In my lectures, I try to emphasize just how maddening it is to get hundreds of poorly written emails a week. Part of your training at UL should include training in how not to annoy those directly responsible for educating you. So, rather than swear at my computer every time I see a poorly written email and end up pulling my hair out like the chap to the right, I'm writing this guide for you. Please use it when you correspond with me, or I just won't reply. The policy will benefit both us, honestly: it will be good for my mental health, and it will help you learn something about spelling, composition, grammar, and professional etiquette, which you will need to know once you head out to the world of work in any case. So learn now.

Subject: [Module Title if appropriate] Something you want from me/want me to see/want me to do/etc

Subject lines speed things up, writing them well is a fine art, see here for tips.

Greeting: Dear Stephen,

You don't need to call me Dr (I'm not a real one), or Professor (I'm not one, I'm just a lecturer). If we aren't friends, 'Hi/Hey/Yo/etc' isn't appropriate. 'Dear' is a bit old fashioned, but it will do. The comma is important. Formal emails and letters use a colon (:) instead of a comma, and you should always hit return twice before beginning the main body of your email, which should, of course, be as short as possible.

Body of the email. State your question, pose your problem, give the information, etc, as precisely as you can. Brevity is good.

Here I don't have any specifics for you, just write the email using the rules of grammar and, perhaps, your word processor's spelling software. Keep the tone formal, but this is an email, not a royal letter, so there is no need for grandiloquence in the language used.

I can tell you what not to write. Don't put yourself down. "I know you're really busy but...", "You don't remember me, but...". Your time is valuable, and you are writing to me for a reason. If you are in one of my classes, I see it as my job to reply to reasonable and well written requests from students. Just give the email twenty seconds more thought, and everyone will be happy.

Closing. Close the email with Regards, [your name, your student number if appropriate].

And we're done. I'm looking forward to reading your next email.

If you're curious about writing well, read this book, and if you can't be bothered with that, here are my notes from the book.

3 Responses to “My Email Policy”

  1. Mark

    Hah, the "Hi wht cum up n nxt exm" is amazing.

    I don't usually open an email with 'Dear', rather 'Hello' if I don't know the person. However, that's usually because I'm emailing a person I'm looking for information from for a story. Thus, I'm trying to be personal with them - one never knows what someone may tell a person they feel friendly with...

    Similarly I tend to close with 'Best'...

    Relevant post though, txtspk screws with my mind - even in text messages.

    By the way, nice new look round these parts.

  2. Benjamin

    "The policy will benefit both us, honestly"... I take it the start of term is a bit stressful then? I can relate... and lets all remember the wise words of another grammatician (is that a word?):

    "For 800 years have I trained Jedi, proper grammar, never learnt have I"
    -Master Yoda

    Hope things get better on the e-mail front 🙂

  3. Stephen

    @ Mark,
    I also find the 'Dear' opening a bit strained, it doesn't quite suit the email format, but it is better than 'Howaya Head', and generally I do close with 'Best', but when it comes to asking people I don't really know for things, I do tend to err on on the formal side. Thanks for the kind words on the blog, it is a work in progress!

    @ Ben,
    This semester's classes are great, but there are a lot of students to converse with, so it'll take some time to iron out all the bugs in the system!

  Posts

1 2 3 154
December 10th, 2019

Using Social Media to Boost your profile

My talk for the social media summit is here. 

November 5th, 2019

Innospace UL talk

Thanks for the invitation to speak, the whole talk is here. 

October 9th, 2019

Understanding the macroeconomy podcast

I really enjoyed my interview with Dr Niall Farrell of the Irish Economics Podcast. You can listen to it here:

September 15th, 2018

Identifying Mechanisms Underlying Peer Effects on Multiplex Networks

New paper with Hang Xiong and Diane Payne just published in JASS: Abstract: We separately identify two mechanisms underlying peer […]

March 24th, 2018

Capital inflows, crisis and recovery in small open economies

Our latest paper, and my first with my Melbourne School of Government affiliation (plus my UL one, of course) is […]

March 7th, 2018

Southern Charm

What's it like working at Australia's number one university, ranked 23rd in the world for social sciences? It's pretty cool, […]

February 7th, 2018

Freedom interview

I did an interview for an app I love using called Freedom. Basically I pay them to block off the […]

December 10th, 2017

Marian Finucane Interview

I did a fairly long interview about the experience of moving to Australia with my family. You can listen here.

November 17th, 2017

Increasing wages for macroeconomic stability

My first piece for the conversation is here. I'm arguing the economy would benefit from wage increases, paid for from […]

November 14th, 2017

Health Workforce Planning Models, Tools and Processes: An Evidence Review

Below is my recorded talk, here are my slides, and the handout for the 4th Global Forum on Human Resources for […]

October 5th, 2017

Aalborg Keynote

My talk from the fourth Nordic Post Keynesian conference is up. The full list of keynotes is here.

October 1st, 2017

AIST Debt and Demography talk

(Apparently Limerick is in the UK now!)

September 7th, 2017

My AIST Keynote: Europe Exposed

In which a camera man faints halfway through--he's OK though, I checked afterwards!

July 22nd, 2017

MacGill Summer School Speech

My speech at the MacGill Summer School is here. Thanks to Joe Muholland for inviting me to speak.

May 25th, 2017

Business Post Articles

All my Sunday Business Post articles (back to 2014/5, when I joined the paper) are available here, behind a paywall, and […]

@barrd on Mastodon