18 Etiquette Tips for E-mailing Your Professor

Reader Comments
Back to blog

In addendum: it's important to be cognizant of what time you e-mail. I'd say any official business after 8pm should wait till the next business day, unless you know your professor well enough. I've learned this lesson the hard way, not only does my professor have e-mail go straight to his phone, even the people who work in the business office at my small community college too.
So, in short, from now on I'm assuming everyone has e-mail that go's straight to their phone. Practically all communication is this way now, I guess I have some catching up to do. Which is funny because I'm a few years shy of college age

James of MO 12:04AM March 27, 2013

Can someone please tell me who biff is? My teacher asked this as an extra credit question. It's due on March 21st 2013.

Stephanie of FL 3:39PM March 18, 2013

"Stick to Word" NO. PDFs are much better.
Not everyone uses Windows. Not everyone can open your .docx or whatever twisted new format BigEvil Inc. comes up with.

Open Source FTW of FL 8:43AM January 11, 2013

my university doesn't provide email service for students..so what should be the name of my email address?

Shunno 1:07AM December 29, 2012

I disagree with Paula that tips 1 and 2 are mistakes made by "older people."
*rolls eyes*
#1 If your email is rife with errors, your philosophy of life, brown-nosing, and complaints about your loser TA, they're still funny and still worth saving and sharing with others.
#2 We get students' mis-sent emails all the time. There are hundreds of "John Andersons"on campus, make sure that you have the right one.

Kay of MN 11:47AM October 12, 2012

Thank you for the advice!
Though this isn't a new article, I felt the need to point out that a lot of the tips here are "old people mistakes." Tips like one, two, and nine aren't even relevant to the average modern college student. Rather, they're mistakes, that from the perspective of a younger person, are only made by people who are unfamiliar with computers. I've personally only seen old people seriously type in all caps. Others do it as a joke in casual conversation.
For future commenters with advice on what to write in e-mails to professors, please base your advice on actual mistakes you've seen in e-mails from college students rather than on a stereotypical student e-mail.

Paula of MD 3:16AM June 13, 2012

I have a student that sends me emails that start with "Hey," like I am their smoking buddy. I would be happy with Ms., Prof., or Dr. at this point. A salutation would be nice.
Maybe I'll start his letter of recommendation to a company with "Hey, company rep.."

Betsy of DC 7:32PM November 29, 2011

I agree with the suggestions in this article. I work at a Foundation and you would be shocked by the email responses submitted by applicants.
1) Many applicants do not address the Foundation, Director or Staff at all.
2) They will provide the required documents but not acknowledge to whom they are sending it to.
3) There are misspelled words throughout their email message.
4) There are incomplete sentences in their email message.
5) Their email address is unprofessional for colleges and scholarships/foundations.
6) Since students text all of the time, they do not know when to turn that option off, which is really annoying to the reader.
7) Yes, students need to address professors in a business manner. You are not friends...... yet.
8) Use spell check when sending emails to all recipients.
Lastly, I will share this article with our scholarship recipients heading off to college. If know one shares this information with them, they'll never know.

Pamela Brown of IL 10:52AM February 21, 2011

I am a professor. The advice here is good. And I both use our university's email system and expect students to use it. As bad as it is, the university's email system is for official business, which is what students and professors do.
So students who fail to check their email will likely fall far behind. And Ed of NY is right--you can forward your university email to another address. Just be sure that, when you reply, you reply from your university address. This is very easy to set up in Gmail.

Tom of NC 9:52AM January 17, 2011

You mean showing some respect actually gets you ahead in life. And here I thought my parents were just old fashioned and stuck in a bygone age.
I had one professor the first day stated: call me "Robert or Bob or Dr. XXXX" I earned the right to be called Doctor. Do NOT use mister.

andrea 11:44PM January 16, 2011