Emailing your instructor

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 18, 2007

What is the "normal procedure" at your school -- and in this particular class -- about that sort of thing? Did the instructor tell you when to expect your grades? Is he expecting everyone to wait until the next class? If that's the case, then I would recommend NOT making a nuisance of yourself and asking for your grade before he is ready to distribute grades to the rest of the class.

However, if he said something that indicates that he welcomes e-mail questions and/or you have special reason for needing special treatment to receive your grade in a way that is not the usual way, then I don't see any reason not to write a polite note.

shock-me-sane · Sep 18, 2007

I would totally do it (and have many times). Waiting for grades is the worst. At best you find out you rocked the test, at worst you have to wait til Saturday.

Just make sure you ask nicely.

Music in My Heart · Sep 18, 2007

Me, I'd just be patient. Being patient really is a virtue and it's one we don't practice nearly enough in our culture.

Glina · Sep 18, 2007

Well, at the beginning of the class, he said that we can email him to let him know if we are not going to be able to attend the class sometimes. However, did not say anything about grades. I guess patience is not my thing, it never was. I will probably email him tomorrow. Worst case scenario, he is not going to tell me. He is pretty much easy going.

RNisme · Sep 18, 2007

Personally, I would not email about a grade. He said you could email him if you were to be absent. That is a different. Imagine if the professor has 2 classes, each with 20 students, that is 40 emails if everyone wants their grade early. Most professors do not mind valid, important emails, but since you are asking for opinions, I would try not to think about it and wait until Saturday. You can do it, I am the same way with grades, I want to know now. However, it will be good practice for us to understand when a patient is waiting for lab results. You will be able to empathize with that patient.

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 18, 2007

Personally, I would not email about a grade. He said you could email him if you were to be absent. That is a different. Imagine if the professor has 2 classes, each with 20 students, that is 40 emails if everyone wants their grade early. Most professors do not mind valid, important emails, but since you are asking for opinions, I would try not to think about it and wait until Saturday. You can do it, I am the same way with grades, I want to know now. However, it will be good practice for us to understand when a patient is waiting for lab results. You will be able to empathize with that patient.

I teach a class with about 60 students. I posted grades from a recent assignment just before class yesterday. During class, I explained the most common reasons for points being deducted -- very clear and specific reasons such as X number of points for work handed in late, X number of points off it you did not include ABC in the assignment, etc.

When I got home in the evening, I found about 10 e-mails from students wanting me to explain to them personally why I deducted the points I did. What's wrong with these people? I had to write responses such as. "You handed the assignment in 3 days late. If you check the grading criteria in the syllabus as I told you to do several times in class, you will see that there are points taken off for missing the deadline." "You did not answer one of the questions in the assignment: so, I took off points for that." etc. etc. etc. Very few (if any) of the points deducted involved judgment calls on my part. They were pretty black and white, objective failures to meet the criteria specified by the assignment.

What's wrong with these people! And this was an assignment for which the grades were relatively high! People who got B's were wanting me to justify their grades.

It took 5-10 minutes to answer each e-mail as I had to go back and look at their assignment to be able to justify my grade to them. The whole thing took a little over an hour of my supposed "free evening at home." I'm afraid to look at my e-mail this morning.

I welcome e-mails from students who have legitimate questions and problems that they need me to help solve. But that should not be taken as an invitation to expect to be catered to minute-by-minute throughout the class. Students need to not abuse e-mail and pester instructors. They need to keep the lines of communication free for important things.

Sorry for the rant -- but someone needs to speak up for harried, underpaid instructors. Most of teach because we care about the course and about the students. But students need to behave responsibly and avoid abusing their instructors with unnecessary special requests and hassles that they could (and should) resolve on their own.

Glina · Sep 18, 2007

I teach a class with about 60 students. I posted grades from a recent assignment just before class yesterday. During class, I explained the most common reasons for points being deducted -- very clear and specific reasons such as X number of points for work handed in late, X number of points off it you did not include ABC in the assignment, etc.
When I got home in the evening, I found about 10 e-mails from students wanting me to explain to them personally why I deducted the points I did. What's wrong with these people? I had to write responses such as. "You handed the assignment in 3 days late. If you check the grading criteria in the syllabus as I told you to do several times in class, you will see that there are points taken off for missing the deadline." "You did not answer one of the questions in the assignment: so, I took off points for that." etc. etc. etc. Very few (if any) of the points deducted involved judgment calls on my part. They were pretty black and white, objective failures to meet the criteria specified by the assignment.
What's wrong with these people! And this was an assignment for which the grades were relatively high! People who got B's were wanting me to justify their grades.
It took 5-10 minutes to answer each e-mail as I had to go back and look at their assignment to be able to justify my grade to them. The whole thing took a little over an hour of my supposed "free evening at home." I'm afraid to look at my e-mail this morning.
I welcome e-mails from students who have legitimate questions and problems that they need me to help solve. But that should not be taken as an invitation to expect to be catered to minute-by-minute throughout the class. Students need to not abuse e-mail and pester instructors. They need to keep the lines of communication free for important things.
Sorry for the rant -- but someone needs to speak up for harried, underpaid instructors. Most of teach because we care about the course and about the students. But students need to behave responsibly and avoid abusing their instructors with unnecessary special requests and hassles that they could (and should) resolve on their own.

Thank you for helping me to see things from another perspective. I guess I was just being unpatient and selfish. I changed my mind and I will wait until Saturday just like everyone else....or maybe go before Saturday and check our message board to see if he posted anything there

Thank you all!

greygooseuria · Sep 18, 2007

It's IMpatient ;-) Sorry, I'm a grammar nazi.

As far as emailing goes, I wouldn't do it. It makes you look bad, and you never know if you'll need to ask this professor for a recommendation.

I used to get 5-6 emails A DAY from OTHER STUDENTS in my classes asking to send them my notes for the day, etc. and asking me to read their papers and all that stuff. It gets really, really annoying very, very fast.

Glina · Sep 18, 2007

It's IMpatient ;-) Sorry, I'm a grammar nazi.
As far as emailing goes, I wouldn't do it. It makes you look bad, and you never know if you'll need to ask this professor for a recommendation.
I used to get 5-6 emails A DAY from OTHER STUDENTS in my classes asking to send them my notes for the day, etc. and asking me to read their papers and all that stuff. It gets really, really annoying very, very fast.

Thanks for correcting me :-) English is my second language anyway, so I have a little trouble here and there :-)

I will not email him.

greygooseuria · Sep 18, 2007

Oh, if English is your second language then don't worry about it. I thought you were a native speaker (as your use of grammar other than that one word is very, very good).

Typically in English, when a word begins with an m or a p and you are trying to make it an opposite, the prefix becomes im- instead of in-. Un- is also used, usually for verbs to talk about undoing an action.

So...impatient vs. incompetent

Or untie.

Glina · Sep 18, 2007

Oh, if English is your second language then don't worry about it. I thought you were a native speaker (as your use of grammar other than that one word is very, very good).
Typically in English, when a word begins with an m or a p and you are trying to make it an opposite, the prefix becomes im- instead of in-. Un- is also used, usually for verbs to talk about undoing an action.
So...impatient vs. incompetent
Or untie.

See, I can learn so much here :-) Thank you for the explanation.