As part of our commitment to wanting you to be successful, we want you to understand that in the world of work, you need to follow certain styles of communication. The bottom line is that you could be the best worker in the world, but if your communication skills are poor, you will be overlooked for pay raises and promotions.
In this course, you will communicate appropriately with your instructor. You need to know, that if your communication with your professor is deemed to be inappropriate, he will remind you of this by answering your message with a link to this blog page. This means that you should rewrite the communication after having reviewed these simple rules. Important elements of appropriate communication are:
- You will use capital letters and appropriate punctuation: periods, question marks, etc..
- You will not use "texting language." For example: I want u 2 know...
- You will start each email with: Dear Professor,
- Be very precise and clear with what you are asking. Otherwise, your message will not be understood on by the person reading it.
- You should only send one message to your professors daily. Sending more than two messages in one day is inappropriate. If you have several questions, simply spell each one out in a new paragraph of the same email.
- You will sign your name at the end of each message. For example: Thank you very much, Bill Smith.
- There's an expression in English: You get more bees with honey than with vinegar. This means that polite correspondence will get you everywhere. When you write your messages, think about how you would feel if your boss or teacher wrote the same message to you.
- Never use profanity, insulting language or an aggressive tone.
- Remember that typing in all capital letters equates to screaming on the internet.
What do you think, acceptable or unacceptable?
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I want you to tell me what I did wrong on the test, thx.
unacceptable
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Professor,
I was wondering if you could tell me why I got numbers 15-24 on the exam wrong. I thought that I understood the concepts.
Sincerely,
María Gómez
acceptable
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hey, I need you to tell me what I can do to get a better grade.
unacceptable
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Professor Smith,
I'm not doing well in your course. I'm concerned about my grade. I was wondering if you could tell me how I can better approach the work and if there will be some sort of extra credit in the near future. Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Your favorite student
acceptable
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What am I doing wrong in this course? I know my sentences are cr*p, but I think that I at least did something right.
unacceptable
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Professor,
I noticed that I did not receive credit for items 20-35 on this last exam. I was wondering if you could take another look at them and give me some feedback on why these items are wrong so that I can correct them for the next test. I might be making a simple mistake on some sentences.
Thank you in advance,
Joe Student
acceptable
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------K JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO AND I'LL DO IT.
completely and totally unacceptable
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Professor,
I was wondering if you could advise me as to what I should do. I'd like to do it as soon as possible.
Thank you in advance,
Mary Student
acceptable