Communicating with Faculty and Staff by Anthny Tsai

Communicating with Faculty and Staff

Many new students find it challenging to contact faculties and staffs within the university when they first arrive in the US. Indeed, there is no universal method that will work for every faculty and staff as most of them have their own preference for communication. However, writing a semi-formal email is a good place to start. Here are some tips that I would like to share with you.

• Provide a descriptive title: Most of the faculties and staffs are very busy as they have to go through loads of emails every day. By using a clear and specific title for your email, it is more likely to be noticed. I often find it useful to add prefixes just to be clear. For example, I would add [CBEMS 210] at the beginning of the email title for homework questions regarding Reaction Engineering class.
• Keep it short and easy to read: You should aim to complete your email within 5 to 7 sentences. It will be more efficient to request an in-person meeting for anything that cannot be easily expressed using emails.
• Address the receiver: Professional emails usually start by first addressing the receiver using Dear Mr./Ms. Lastname, however, hi and hello are used more frequently in day to day emailing as it sounds more approachable. Gender neutral Dr. Lastname or Professor Lastname are also commonly used.
• Use a signature template: Contact information can be listed at the bottom as a Gmail signature template and it will be pre-formatted for every single email.
• Change the default to ‘reply all:’ Click on the gear icon and go in Settings. In the General tab, you can change the default reply behavior to Reply All. This will prevent people from being dropped out in a group email conversation.

It is also common to send a follow-up email after an in-person meeting that includes a short summary of topics discussed. This will help you remember what actions should be taken and keep a written record of what was discussed during the meeting.

Anthony Tsai Home Country: Taiwan The Henry Samueli School of Engineering Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Ph.D.