By Trisha Porzycki | Reporter
To whom this may concern:
I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to address college students’ email etiquette…
The sheer amount of emails you send and receive in college is crazy compared to high school. Response time is critical and formatting can make or break your email. Some professors or future employers won’t even respond to emails that don’t have a proper greeting or a sign-off.
With college students sending emails like, “hey is this required for the class” or “Hi!!! I have a quick question!,” it’s obvious that email communication is not a subject that is taught to us in high school. Are you contacting your professor with “Hey!!!!”? Why are you using four exclamation points? You didn’t even include a proper sign-off.
It’s time that higher education takes responsibility for helping students understand how to communicate as adults.
All freshmen should be required to take a communications crash course during their first semester. Students could use instruction on contacting professors, faculty members, future employers and student leaders on campus. These skills are not only vital in college, but in the professional world.
As a student leader on campus, it is frustrating to receive an email like this, as we respond to multiple emails in one day. Emails which are unclear typically require a long email chain back and forth to figure out what the initial email was even trying to say.
The course should focus on professional communication, including resumes, emails, cover letters, how to ask for a recommendation letter, etc. Understanding how to write a clear email is vital when employers receive hundreds of emails a day.
In most majors, these skills are built into the curriculum. However, they are oftentimes not focused on until a junior or senior year course. For those that want to begin gaining experience early, they have to navigate the professional communication world without guidance.
Starting these skills during freshman year will help students get internships during their first or second college summers, creating more competitive graduates, helping students build interpersonal communication skills, and enabling them to create stronger relationships with professors and working professionals.
Baylor offers many great resources which can help students write their resumes and cover letters, but what about an every day email? There’s a need for this kind of course, and students would benefit immensely from the additional guidance.
Best Regards (see what I did there),
A Baylor Senior
