e-mail – Life @ U of T

How to Approach Professors like a Pro

Confession time: I used to be deathly afraid of my professors (and teachers). What? I also used to be one of those kids that thought teachers lived at school all the time and didn't do anything else. What a shock it was when 6-year-old me saw a teacher outside of school for the first time and realized that teachers are human beings just like me.

Press Send and Prosper: E-mailing Profs

Cyberspace: the final frontier. These are the enterprises of the modern student. Her undergraduate mission: to explore strange new syllabi, to seek out help and resources, to boldly go where many students have gone before… …Her professor’s UTmail+ inbox. Okay okay, maybe e-mailing a professor isn’t quite as exciting or high stakes as hiking through Andoria, but it can feel like a monolithic task. I have heard all sorts of horror stories—everything from sending a prof the wrong e-mail to accidentally using a text abbreviation! Shudder.

Pictured: Spock from Star Trek staring at a computer — Spock is unimpressed by "lol jk" Picture courtesy of http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/

After three years of interacting with professors through various mediums, I think I am starting to get the hang of it.

Here is what I always keep in mind when I’m drafting an e-mail:

My Only Hope: One day Someone will Realize my Mediocrity is Actually a Super Human Feat

UTormail: Inbox Email # 339 of 340 Date :Tues, 10 Feb 2009 00:09:10 -0600 From: Heather To: Phil Subject: AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey Phil, Ya, you're right, I really haven't gotten back to you in a while. This is…

Tag: e-mail