Blog #10: Reflect on the difference between blog 3’s email and the email etiquette essay

Both blog 3 and the etiquette essay were fake (or at least I suggested that they should be). The blog email for blog #3 was sent to a friend; whereas, the email etiquette essay was addressed to an instructor. Right away there are a lot of differences involved.

Most students realized that almost immediately. Being aware of your audience is always very important. If you are writing an email to your friend, you might cuss, you probably would be whiny, griping, and all in all an emotional basket case. Some people would be very emotional and blame the teacher for everything, or the world for mistreating them, or their car for breaking down. I mean almost anything will come out in a discussion with a friend, both oral discussions and written ones.

However, emails written to instructors are a lot different. One very different aspect is the fact that when a student is emailing an instructor, he or she is usually asking the instructor to do something. Griping to your friend via email, the only thing you are probably asking for is a sympathetic ear to whine in and a shoulder to cry on. Also, your friend probably knows who you are, otherwise, what kind of friend are they? Right? But your teacher might not know who you are. I say that because your teacher has LOTS of students. It’s hard for a teacher to know which class which student is in because everything kind of melts together.

It’s really been rather fascinating to teach this email etiquette lesson. Since I have taught it, all of my students always start out their emails with: Hell my name is such in such, and I am in your such in such class. I love it when they start their emails out like that. I know that they have learned a VERY IMPORTANT lesson when I see them emulate the practice over and over again. WOOT!