For study at university the computer will have an important role in your academic
life. This will not only be for word-processing your assignments. Besides face-to
face contact with your tutors and fellow students in seminars, during some of
your study time at university you will probably need to use online resources
and learning tools. Some course communication may take place online. For example,
you may be required to take part in online discussion forums and you will certainly
need to communicate with your tutor from time to time by email. Online communication
is somewhat different from face-to-face conversation and there are some unwritten
rules about how you should approach it.
In these activities, you will consider what rules there might be for communicating
online and explore some examples of email communications to decide what is and
what is not appropriate.
Activity 1: Communicating online
What do you already know about communicating online? What are the accepted
rules, sometimes known as netiquette,
for communicating online and what kind of language should you use in emails
to your tutor or messages to discussion forums that are part of your course?
Use these questions to assess whether you already have
the e-skills and e-manners to join an online academic community. Decide whether
you think the following statements about netiquette are true or false. Select
true or false and then check your answers.
Spelling, grammar and punctuation are not important in online messages. It's
the communication that matters.
The reader will judge you by what you send and be distracted from what
you are saying if the message contains errors in grammar, spelling or punctuation.
In an academic context such mistakes look particularly bad.
It is advisable to use a clear and concise style for emails and messages
to discussion forums.
No-one reading your message can see your facial expression or hear your
tone of voice. These channels of communication are not available with text-based
online tools. Emoticons may offer some scope for double meaning but are
often inappropriate in an academic context. In general, careless choice
of language is likely to make your message unclear and using too many words
instead of making the effort to be concise will irritate your reader.
It is okay to use very informal language and express your opinions freely
in discussion forums.
There is an element of truth in this statement insofar as the language
used in discussion forums does tend towards more informality than formality
and the exchange of opinions on various topics is what makes discussion
forum activity interesting. However, in a context that is academic and likely
to involve people from different cultures with different belief and value
systems, very informal language together with slang and any potentially
offensive language should be avoided. In the same way, participants in a
discussion forum should think carefully about what they say and its appropriateness
as well as how they express their opinions.
Typing in capital letters (upper case) is considered to be the equivalent
of shouting face-to-face.
Using uppercase in emails and discussion messages is like shouting online.
It is also considered inconsiderate to use uppercase because a text in capitals
takes longer to read and presents more difficulty for the reader. Don't
do it.
It's acceptable to leave the subject: field blank in an email if the
name of the sender is clear.
This is also inconsiderate. The recipient of the message may have to deal
with many emails each day and need to manage and organise messages. Moreover,
if the 'subject' field is blank, it may get mistaken for spam mail (also
if the 'subject' field contains something inappropriate like 'hi').
It is polite to start an email with a short greeting (such as 'dear',
'hi', 'hello' as appropriate) followed by the recipient's name.
This is particularly the case if you are writing an email to someone on
your course who you do not know very well. Manners are important online
too and beginning with an initial greeting is better than a direct question
which can appear too demanding. Similarly, it is important to sign off at
the end of your message and include your name.
It's important to keep to the topic when sending messages to a discussion
forum.
There is likely to be a limited amount of time available for any topic being
discussed in a forum. Participants log in and contribute asynchronously
and so the discussion needs a longer time to develop. For this reason, it
is important that participants messages are planned beforehand and focused
on the topic. It also takes longer to read online so other participants
in the forum may be annoyed if a message is disorganised or off the topic.
Organising the content of your message into short paragraphs around individual
points can be helpful for your readers.
Activity 2: Judging appropriate tone and register in emails
Email provides a convenient way to communicate with other members of an academic
community. If you need to communicate with your tutor by email it is important
that you are able to get the tone and register
of your emails right.
In this activity you are going to consider what tone and register is needed
for emails.
Read the email below, sent by a university tutor to some of his students:
Hello there
The article attached seems relevant to the topic we are studying this week
on course HI 579 and to your course assignment. Please have a look at it
and let me know whether you think you will use it for your assignment.
Best,
Tom
Now look at three of the replies that the tutor, Tom,
received from his students. Pay particular attention to the register
of each reply and decide whether you think they are written in an appropriate
or not appropriate style. Select an answer and then read the comment.
Hi Tom!
How are U? Great to get your email, but it took ages to get the attachment
open :-( I'm not v. good at computers!! I read the aritcel, but I don't
think it's that goood for me, thanks all the same! I've changed the theme
of my essay!! C U soon
Gina :-)
Hello Tom
Thanks for the article. I've only had a brief chance to look at it, but
it seems it could be really useful for my assignment. I will be using it.
Tasha
Dear Tom,
Thank you very much for sending the attachment of the article in your email
yesterday.
It was extremely interesting, and as a result I will certainly attempt
to incorporate it into my forthcoming assignment. I have so far researched
the following for my assignment:
5 papers from Internet-based journals
4 library books from the reading list provided by you
I am very grateful for your kind help, and I feel sure the article will
add to the quality of my final submission, which I will endeavour to submit
before the deadline of 12th of June.
This reply is much too informal and "chatty" for an email between a student
and a tutor. Gina has included a number of features which are inappropriate
for an email sent in an academic context for example her use of emoticons
or smileys e.g :-( to convey feelings; very informal abbreviated forms for
words, e.g. U for you; spelling and typographical mistakes e.g. goood, aritcel;
overuse of punctuation marks.
Tasha : Appropriate
The style that Tasha uses in her reply to Tom is the most appropriate of
the three replies. It seems to be a good balance of written and spoken English,
which is the most often used style in emails of this kind. Tasha also keeps
her message short and to the point, so she doesn't waste the reader's time.
Kevin : Not appropriate
Tom's email to his students is written in a fairly informal and friendly
way. Kevin's reply, however, is too wordy and has been written in the style
of a letter, and has language in it that is too formal and elaborate for
an email, for example: forthcoming, kindly, endeavour.You can use language
like this - it won't offend anyone - but the register is wrong for an informal
means of communication such as email that best achieves its purpose by using
simple and concise language to communicate with. It should also be relevant.
Signing off in emails is generally done without formality ( not "Yours sincerely").
In many cases, emails serve as a quick and efficient way of communicating
information from one person to another. They are generally read quickly by
their recipients so it is important to be brief and to
the point in communicating your message. It is also important to
be precise in order to avoid confusion.
Now look again at Gina's inappropriate email. Edit it
in the box below so that it:
is brief and to the point
avoids repetition
expresses the point precisely
reflects an appropriate level of language formality
Thanks for your email. Apologies for not replying sooner - there was
a technical problem. Have now looked at the article but as I have changed
the theme of my essay it isn't so useful and I will probably not use it.
Gina
Produced for the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics
and Area Studies Materials Bank www.llas.ac.uk/mb
Author: Julie Watson, eLanguages, University of Southampton
