ICMA study
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
Growing up we heard versions of this lie all the time. In reality, words are powerful. Words are full of emotions and connotations, and they should always be handled with care. Using words prudently is just as important when talking with students as in our scholarly writing. When communicating with students, whether in an e-mail, in the office, or in the classroom, using a combination of inclusive, positive, and welcoming language is best.
I still remember one negative, almost hostile e-mail I received as a college freshman from a professor. It said, "Andrew, you need to greatly curtail the number of e-mails you send." This was in the third or fourth week of the semester. This was a small honors class with a dozen students. One e-mail I sent was a reply to a message this instructor sent out to everyone requesting specific information. One was an e-mail following the course procedure for mistakes we found in the online chapter quizzes. The last one was a content-based question about the lecture and reading material. While we all voice this frustration — we do receive far too many e-mails — we should communicate and deal with this in a very different way.
I have days where I am tempted to delete all my e-mail and not look back because I receive so many -- 50 to 100 every day. For me, the number of e-mails from students has always been small (actually too small) — no more than 10-20 weekly. Perhaps we think our students send more because they generally ask questions that are covered in the syllabus or in other handouts. I just do my best to take a few minutes once or twice a day and answer any messages. It always takes less time than I anticipate. A few ways to make answering more manageable are: 1) for questions that more than one student is likely to have, go ahead send an e-mail to the entire class, 2) send e-mails to everyone regularly with course information and reminders, 3) keep a document
Growing up we heard versions of this lie all the time. In reality, words are powerful. Words are full of emotions and connotations, and they should always be handled with care. Using words prudently is just as important when talking with students as in our scholarly writing. When communicating with students, whether in an e-mail, in the office, or in the classroom, using a combination of inclusive, positive, and welcoming language is best.
I still remember one negative, almost hostile e-mail I received as a college freshman from a professor. It said, "Andrew, you need to greatly curtail the number of e-mails you send." This was in the third or fourth week of the semester. This was a small honors class with a dozen students. One e-mail I sent was a reply to a message this instructor sent out to everyone requesting specific information. One was an e-mail following the course procedure for mistakes we found in the online chapter quizzes. The last one was a content-based question about the lecture and reading material. While we all voice this frustration — we do receive far too many e-mails — we should communicate and deal with this in a very different way.
I have days where I am tempted to delete all my e-mail and not look back because I receive so many -- 50 to 100 every day. For me, the number of e-mails from students has always been small (actually too small) — no more than 10-20 weekly. Perhaps we think our students send more because they generally ask questions that are covered in the syllabus or in other handouts. I just do my best to take a few minutes once or twice a day and answer any messages. It always takes less time than I anticipate. A few ways to make answering more manageable are: 1) for questions that more than one student is likely to have, go ahead send an e-mail to the entire class, 2) send e-mails to everyone regularly with course information and reminders, 3) keep a document