Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence
Many university faculty value email as an important tool for communicating with colleagues, but express frustration with a high incidence of unprofessional email correspondence from students. The goals of this study were to document the frequency of specific formatting mistakes that contribute to fa...
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Georgia Southern University
2009-01-01
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| Series: | International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
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| Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/vol3/iss1/15 |
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doaj-94e239baf2754f929506f897df32d3e72020-11-24T22:21:03ZengGeorgia Southern UniversityInternational Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning1931-47442009-01-013110.20429/ijsotl.2009.030115Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email CorrespondenceNancy Aguilar-RocaAdrienne WilliamsR WarriorDiane O’DowdMany university faculty value email as an important tool for communicating with colleagues, but express frustration with a high incidence of unprofessional email correspondence from students. The goals of this study were to document the frequency of specific formatting mistakes that contribute to faculty’s unfavorable perception of student emails and to determine if training could reduce these errors. We analyzed emails from students to three instructors of different rank and gender co-teaching two sections of a large introductory biology class: one section received two minutes of basic email etiquette training, the second section served as the control. We report a significant increase in overall professional quality of student emails in the trained class due to more frequent use of proper salutations, appropriate capitalization, and a class-specific subject line. These data suggest that most students do not send intentionally disrespectful messages and respond to guidance in constructing professionally formatted emails.https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/vol3/iss1/15Email etiquetteTrainingUndergraduateStudent-faculty communication |
| collection |
DOAJ |
| language |
English |
| format |
Article |
| sources |
DOAJ |
| author |
Nancy Aguilar-Roca Adrienne Williams R Warrior Diane O’Dowd |
| spellingShingle |
Nancy Aguilar-Roca Adrienne Williams R Warrior Diane O’Dowd Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Email etiquette Training Undergraduate Student-faculty communication |
| author_facet |
Nancy Aguilar-Roca Adrienne Williams R Warrior Diane O’Dowd |
| author_sort |
Nancy Aguilar-Roca |
| title |
Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence |
| title_short |
Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence |
| title_full |
Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence |
| title_fullStr |
Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Two Minute Training in Class Significantly Increases the Use of Professional Formatting in Student to Faculty Email Correspondence |
| title_sort |
two minute training in class significantly increases the use of professional formatting in student to faculty email correspondence |
| publisher |
Georgia Southern University |
| series |
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
| issn |
1931-4744 |
| publishDate |
2009-01-01 |
| description |
Many university faculty value email as an important tool for communicating with colleagues, but express frustration with a high incidence of unprofessional email correspondence from students. The goals of this study were to document the frequency of specific formatting mistakes that contribute to faculty’s unfavorable perception of student emails and to determine if training could reduce these errors. We analyzed emails from students to three instructors of different rank and gender co-teaching two sections of a large introductory biology class: one section received two minutes of basic email etiquette training, the second section served as the control. We report a significant increase in overall professional quality of student emails in the trained class due to more frequent use of proper salutations, appropriate capitalization, and a class-specific subject line. These data suggest that most students do not send intentionally disrespectful messages and respond to guidance in constructing professionally formatted emails. |
| topic |
Email etiquette Training Undergraduate Student-faculty communication |
| url |
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/vol3/iss1/15 |
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