Bonaventure professors, students caution
against improper email etiquette
ST. BONAVENTURE (May 10) — Schwoop. Da-dum. Schwoop. Da-dum. Clicking away on her MacBook in her office, Carole McNall sends and receives her daily emails. Opening one, she sees:
“Carole, I need to talk with you at 2:30 today.” A student – not her boss or someone of higher authority – sent her this email.
“That’s too informal,” McNall said. “He just expected me to drop everything. There is a certain level of respect I want to see out of students and colleagues.”
Email faux pas like this happen every day. People forget the etiquette necessary for an effective email, said McNall, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University.
“People need to put basic etiquette online,” she said. “The easiest way to do that is to use the golden rule via email.”
In other words, as the website 101emailetiquettetips.com said, “Type unto others as you would have them type unto you.”
In a 2008 survey conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project, 73 percent of adults in America use the Internet, and 91 percent of adults who obtain a college degree use the Internet.
A Pew Internet research project from 2007 said that 94 percent of all teens use the Internet as well.
According to another Pew Internet project, 92 percent of all Internet users use email, but misusing email – i.e., forgetting necessary etiquette – could have consequences, said professors and students at St. Bonaventure University.
Personal letters have almost disappeared, people make fewer phone calls and email has taken over as the primary way people communicate, said Richard Simpson, professor of English.
“Email is an efficient, user-friendly system that is easy and fun to use,” Simpson said. However, he attaches a caution. “If you ignore your audience, expect to pay a price.”
Connie Whitcomb, director of the Career Center, agreed.
“The rules of etiquette remain the same, but the formality of the communication may change depending upon the relationship that individuals have,” Whitcomb said.
Michelle McKernan, Student Government Association president, said she realized her emails change depending on the receiver and the subject.
“If it is just a friend, it is going to be similar to a text,” said McKernan, a journalism and mass communication major. However, if writing to a professor she knows well, the email would be more casual and if writing to the dean, the email would be formal.
McNall agreed, but said some recipients would experience consequences for casualness.
“The line in which informality is appropriate,” McNall said, “depends on topic and person. If someone crosses line, I go back to formal very quickly.”
Simpson has another approach.
“If an email crosses the line, it depends on individual case,” Simpson said. “If I respect them (the sender), I cut them some slack.”
Ruth Harper, public relations graduate assistant for the Career Center, said mirroring avoids making that transgression.
“In the initial email be as professional as possible,” she said. “After that mirror their style, their colloquialisms. Write as they write.”
However, many interviewed said they see email formality decreasing. Senders do not realize the professionalism some recipients expect.
“More and more, every year literally, students are married to cell phones and texting as a way to communicate,” Simpson said. “Facebook, Twitter and cell phones advocate a lack of care to English.”
“Once in a while I will get something that is like an IM or a Facebook chat as an email,” Harper said. IM stands for an instant message.
On the other hand, those interviewed said their colleagues, for the most part, write appropriately.
Whitcomb, who receives between 40 to 50 emails a day, said, “Among colleagues I would say most are business casual. It’s kind of like dress. It’s khakis and a collared shirt.”
Whitcomb said that if she doesn’t know the person emailing her, whether a student or colleague, she expects the email to be business professional. However, students often miss the mark by sending business casual, but some do miss it all together, she said.
Dennis Wilkins, a journalism and mass communication professor, distinguished the difference between business casual and business professional.
“The difference between business professional and business casual is driven by the desire to be formal and briskly informal,” said Wilkins, who holds a doctorate in communication.
He said the differences exist in salutations and the courtesy of the email.
“The level of language in business professional would be slightly higher,” Wilkins said. “Almost more jargon in the email.”
McKernan said she noticed how some students fail to be even business casual.
“If I get an email that’s says, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ I get annoyed,” McKernan said. “I feel like they are wasting my time.”
The best emails get to the point and tell her exactly what she needs to know, McKernan said.
Whitcomb said, however, that students’ writing styles develop professionally over the years.
Harper witnessed this experience in her own emails.
“Thinking back to high school and my freshman year, I definitely feel my emails have changed,” Harper said.
With her various positions at the campus newspaper as writer, news editor and editor-in-chief, as well as participating in the American Advertising Federation as a junior, she said her emails have become more professional.
To use proper email etiquette, most interviewed said they proofread emails for proper spelling, grammar and tone.
Simpson said one month he received four or five different emails in which people used an unwise tone that made him feel reluctant to perform the asked favors.
McNall, who receives between 25 to 35 emails a day, said to use the old mantra: “ ‘Who’s your audience?’ Think while you’re writing, ‘who and why?’”
Potential employers have become a significant audience to email writers, Whitcomb said.
Whitcomb said employers now rely on email communication as an integral part of obtaining a job.
“The use of email in corporate culture is pervasive,” Whitcomb said. “It’s here. It’s valuable because it’s here and it’s entrenched. Letters are rare, phone calls are uncommon and given this pervasiveness it’s imperative that people use the medium appropriately.”
Nowadays, email provides the first impression an employer could have of a prospective employee.
“We are creatures of first impression, we can’t help it,” said Whitcomb.
Harper agreed.
“Some people don’t realize email, a lot of time, acts as a first impression, so they need to maintain professionalism,” she said.
Whitcomb said that when seeking a job people need to put their best message forward.
“If you are looking for an internship,” McKernan said, “and you misspell something in an email, no one will want you. If you make a mistake you’re not there to defend yourself.”
Whitcomb’s email etiquette for jobs can be defined as appropriate salutations, being concise while still giving details and sounding respectful, friendly and approachable. All in all, Whitcomb said, emails should reflect “appropriate, respectful electronic communication.”
Of the 92 percent of Internet users who use email, Whitcomb said most people use email for business.
“The same level of professionalism in a business letter should transfer in email,” Whitcomb said. “Proper email etiquette can go so much further.”
Whitcomb said the level of professionalism that would be written in any print form should be the same in electronic form.
To write the best email, Whitcomb said, writers should “adopt the mindset of the reader.”
“In today’s age because of social networking sites you can kind of forget that email is different from Facebook,” Harper said. “Facebook and other social networking sites are used primarily for personal reasons, and so the writing done there may not be as professional as an email is or should be.”
Harper said email etiquette “is definitely something I can see younger people needing to practice more. (They) may have more trouble discerning the importance of using different language for an email versus your Facebook wall. Even though they are both online activities, they are two distinct forms of communicating and should be treated as such for the most part.”
“Email is beneficial because you can ask and answer questions at times you couldn’t before,” McNall said. “People just need to know how to use it right.”
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