Student Emails

Hugo Schwyzer has a great post on student emails over at Cliopatria. I have to say, most of my interactions with students take place via email unless I require them to come and see me in office hours. To stem the flow of procedural emails, I've made my syllabi more detailed. I also now require students who want to talk about paper topics or have me look over drafts to do so during office hours or by appointment, in person. I also now respond to student complaint emails (which I never got very often but usually had something to do with grades and grading) with one line inviting the student to discuss his/her complaints in person. I find this approach lessens the volume of email in my inbox and leads to more personal relationships with students.

I've never been on the receiving end of a rude series of student emails like Scott Eric Kaufman has. As usual, Scott presents the exchange in a very humorous way. Enjoy!