This page provides you with some tips on using e-mail in a professional and appropriate way in academic and professional settings. These suggestions will serve you well in your future educational and professional careers.

Use an appropriate e-mail address

While  you are required to use your NCSU address when communicating with me, you should also consider your other email addresses. Students use a rather startling range of e-mail names that include words or phrases that are generally silly, childish, sexually suggestive, or could be taken as offensive. I strongly urge you not use such e-mail addresses to communicate with me or other faculty. Such names instantly label you as immature and not ready for college. This is why I require all communications be through NCSU email accounts. You can certainly use other addresses for your personal mail, but the best names for serious mail are those that are simple and straightforward. For example, my gmail account is tom.birkland@gmail.com -- easy, effective, and to the point. Remember, you will be using e-mail to contact professors, potential employers, and others who may not appreciate e-mail names that are silly or suggestive.

I strongly suggest you restrict your NCSU e-mail to “business” mail and set up a Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL account for all other e-mail.

Always include your name in your message

Because e-mail addresses sometimes do not contain name information, you must include your name in every e-mail. Some e-mail that fails to contain a name will be treated as spam and will be discarded appropriately by spam filtering software.

Always include a subject line in your message.

It is poor mail etiquette to send email without a subject line that explains what the note is about. Make it easy for your recipient: for example, in my public policy course, I prefer students use PS 310 as the first part of the subject line. Messages without subject lines are often discarded by the email system as spam.

Check e-mail regularly

I use e-mail a lot to communicate with classes because it is often the best way for me to announce a change the syllabus, class cancellations, and other information. I never accept “I didn’t get my e-mail” as an excuse for missing important information. You might want to establish a time every day, before your classes start, that you use to check email, either on or off campus. And consistent with a resolution passed by the student body senate in 2005, if I cancel class I will let you know no later than 45 minutes before class start time.

Write at the appropriate level of formality

When writing to professors it is important to be properly formal (without getting carried away, of course). It’s entirely appropriate to address your professor as Dr., professor, or some other title. Most professors or others in academia would rather not be addressed as Hey, Yo, Whassup?, or other informal ways that are more appropriate in communication with family or friends. Most professors would rather be addressed as Dr. or Prof. than as Mr., Ms., or Mrs. Remember, you are trying to make a positive impression on the reader.

Write in standard English

Many people have become accustomed to writing very casual e-mails. Don’t write this way to professors. It is sloppy and reflects poorly on the writer. In particular, it suggests that you cannot write in standard English, and we will mark you accordingly.

Don’t forward spam, hoaxes, or other junk

Please verify any virus warnings, bizarre stories, or the like before distributing them to the class or me. You should verify the truth of any “urban myths” or anything that looks like a myth at www.snopes.com.