Write an email to the teacher
Over the past decade, e-mail has become perhaps one of the most popular means of business communication.
A letter to a teacher, unlike a letter or text message to a friend, requires a more thorough approach.
An email to a teacher should resemble a classic business letter in style. Its text should be short and correct in terms of spelling, grammar and punctuation!
Sending email to teachers is a formal procedure, so it’s not worth writing dozens of messages on every minor occasion.
Most students have to send emails to teachers, write messages on social networks or in private offices on the university’s website. However, young people who are accustomed to informal communication on the web do not always manage to observe the “rules of good form” at the same time.
As the practice of electronic correspondence with students has shown, such a simple thing turns out to be either beyond the power of many, or puts them in an awkward position. So let’s learn to write together. Your letters, as well as your clothes, hairstyle, speech are part of your image – a carelessly written letter can seriously worsen the opinion of you.
Teachers receive a lot of emails every day. If you decide to use your internal account at an educational institution, then the letter will have a better chance of not getting into spam. In addition, this way your letter will look more professional. It will also be easy for the teacher to understand who exactly is writing him a letter, since accounts in educational institutions are usually based on the surname and first name of a person or his initials.
Reasons for sending an email to a teacher
The reasons for writing an email can be very different. A good reason may be to report your illness or other emergency situation. Be sure to warn if you will be absent from classes and why. By email, you can arrange a meeting with the teacher during working hours, or send completed assignments. In an email, you can thank the teacher for the meeting, recommendations or any other help. If it happened that you violated discipline in class, then it would be wise to write an email and apologize for your behavior.
When it is possible and necessary to write to the teacher
The question is ambiguous, when it is possible and necessary to write to teachers. Of course, there are generally accepted rules and the time when it is best to do it. But each teacher has their own standards for relationships with their students. Some of them are more formal, others are more informal.
Before writing an email, make sure that you have a good reason to send an email. Use their school email account.
Be concise and clear. Be polite and show gratitude.
Correspondence presupposes the presence of two sides of communication; therefore, attention should be paid to personal data. Personal data should be clear and as complete as possible, so as not to cause misunderstanding, alertness and mystery in the addressee. Complete the email with your full name, class, and institution.
By sending a message, remind who you are (university staff rarely remember the whole stream by name and surname, and even more so – which of the students in which group is studying),
Observe the set deadlines and do not wait for an instant response: checking the mail from teachers can take several hours, and if you sent a test half an hour before class, do not be surprised that it was not checked on time.
Make sure that the teacher is comfortable working with your messages — in fact, this is what the basic rules of correspondence are aimed at.
It is best to send emails to teachers in the morning before school and towards the end of the day. During the day, during working hours, it is more difficult for teachers to respond to your messages, because they teach lessons.
Avoid email correspondence with teachers on weekends or holidays.
Remember that teachers don’t spend all their time at school. It’s best not to send them emails outside of business hours. When you respect their privacy, they will be happy to help you as much as possible.
Don’t wait for an immediate response: give them 1-3 days to respond.
Take into account the time when sending emails for urgent questions.
Avoid writing the text with a solid wall. Form paragraphs according to the meaning and separate them with an empty line, so the information will be better perceived.
It is not recommended to insert any small details into the text of the letter, use attached files or links to the necessary materials in the comments to the text. If you attach archived rar or zip files to the letter, then warn the recipient so that it is not perceived as a virus attack.
The text of the letter
The first thing students need to remember is that the person who sets the tone for your communication is the teacher – regardless of whether it is a university audience or online correspondence.
The text of the letter should begin with a correct greeting. Also try to make the subject of the letter clear and correct.
Start with the words “Hello” or “Good morning/afternoon”.
Address teachers the same way you address them in class. Sending emails to teachers from different schools or colleges, please do your best to contact them officially.
When sending an email to a teacher, some students forget about the correct structure of the letter text.
How to start?! The text of a business letter begins with a greeting and an address. It is best to use the address by first name and patronymic (if you are not sure that you remember them correctly – check on the university’s website).
Next, from a new line, clearly and concisely state the essence of the question. Do not neglect the rules of your language — the absence of dots or capital letters makes an unfavorable impression. If you did not specify the number of your study group in the subject of the letter, add this information to the main text.
Remember that teachers are busy, so make the text of the letter as short and simple as possible.
Structure your letter correctly. Because reading from a monitor screen is much more difficult than reading paper media. The text will be readable if it is divided into several logical paragraphs. Don’t build long abstruse sentences. Separate paragraphs from each other with an indent or an empty line. The ideal option would be to limit it to five sentences or less. Try to be concise and contain less than 150 words in the text of the letter.
When writing to the teacher by email, please keep a respectful tone.
No emoticons and extra-long explanations. Get straight to the point.
The title of the letter is the only thing that the recipient of the letter sees when it arrives. Very often, its fate depends on the name of the letter: the recipient will open it or delete it without looking. Therefore, the headers of the letter should be treated with special priority.
For some reason, literacy is not given much importance on the Internet. Mistakes can be found on the official websites of serious companies, not to mention letters in which it is sometimes difficult to understand not only individual words, but also whole phrases, they can be formulated so illiterate and with errors. It is important to remember that illiterate letters are a bad culture, and it has no place on the Internet.
How to end an email
Use phrases such as “Sincerely,” or “Best wishes,” and do not forget to put a comma at the end, and indicate your first and last name in the line below. Remind yourself in a week if you don’t get an answer. After sending the letter, you should not bother the teacher once again while waiting for a response.
End your emails to teachers politely.
First, summarize your email in one last sentence to elicit a faster response.
Don’t forget to express gratitude and thank your teacher even before he answers. Phrases like “Thank you for your time” or “Thank you so much for your help” have a positive effect on how the teacher digests your information.
At the end, be sure to add phrases such as “All the best”, “Sincerely” and «Best wishes”.
Try to remember and follow the tips mentioned here, and you will no longer have to blush for your mistakes in writing an email to the teacher.
