Sending Email to Faculty and Administrators

Email you send to faculty and administrators should follow the conventions of professional email in any workplace: craft an informative subject line; address the recipient appropriately; be concise and courteous; proofread to avoid sending messages with typos. These are some guidelines for composing professional email messages:

Craft a specific subject line

• A good subject line tells your recipient what your email is about. Make yours clear and direct. If your email pertains to a class, include the class number and section in the subject line.

Example subject lines:
ENGH 101.067 Final Paper Questions
ENGH 101.067 Absence

Don’t “reply all” when you want to email your professor only

• Sometimes professors send out email to the entire class. If you are responding to such an email, do not “reply all” unless you want everyone on the list to see your message.

Start with an appropriate greeting

• Start with “Dear” or “Hello.” These greetings are formal and should be used when greeting your professors and administrators in a professional message.
  
  
• Examples of appropriate salutations:
  • Dear Professor Deems, Hello Professor Spivak
    
    
• Examples of salutations that are too informal. Do not use these:
  • Hi Professor, Hey there Professor

Address the recipient properly

• If you are writing to an instructor or professor, address them as “Professor [Lastname].”

• If your instructor or professor who has a PhD or DA, you may address them as Dr. [Lastname],” but using “Professor” is also fine.

• If you are writing to an administrator who is not a faculty member, address them as “Mr. [Lastname]” or “Ms. [Lastname].” (If you want to be super-precise, you can look up their profile to see if they have a PhD or DA.)

• Do not address faculty or administrators by their first names, or with “Professor [Firstname],” “Dr. [Firstname],” or “Mr. [Firstname].”