How To Write An Unprofessional Email
Scott Greenfield recently featured an email exchange between a student and a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business that's been making the rounds lately.
One email is polite and concise.
The other email is an unfocused ramble. Instead of sentence stress, the author emphasizes their points through profanity, sarcasm, ALL-CAPS, and scatological references. Instead of proper sentence construction, the author joins thoughts with ellipses.
I don't understand why the former author started the correspondence in the first place. Maybe the latter author is right about the issue at hand. Problem is, it's too hard to tell amongst the many distractions and it's psychologically harder to give credence to a person who is unable to maintain an appropriate tone for the situation.
Thanks for sharing this Max.
I can see where the professor had a bit of a point, but it is hard to think that guy should have any professional respect if he treats people that way.
Students sometimes show up late to my classes. If the latecomers take their seats quietly, then I ignore their tardiness and continue whatever I was doing. Most of the time, they are no more distracting to the other students than, say, a loud sneeze.
I've never honestly convinced myself that professors get upset at late or absent students for academic reasons or out of fatherly desire to guide their students' to maturity. I try to respect each instructor's rules of classroom etiquette - but when a professor lectures a student for lateness or absence, I can't help but imagine a prima donna or spoiled child crying out for lack of attention.
If the class depends heavily on student participation (e.g. most labs and foreign-languages classes), that's an exception! Otherwise, I expect late students to respect other students and the instructor by entering with minimal disruption. I don't expect them to be fearful or submissive, and I don't see the benefit of punishing someone who partially attends a class.
Intellectual progress is made exclusively by people who are respectful enough to listen to their predecessors and irreverent enough to disagree critically. Angry responses to erratic attendance threaten both mutual respect and mutual irreverence. While Prof. Galloway's attitude is common among professors I've met, I respectfully suggest that it is counterproductive.
As for his tone, well... the frustrations of academia have led me to type angry rants far more offensive than his. His advice about waiting to hit the "Send" button has served me well in these situations. I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant to click "Save Draft" in this case.