Every Stone

Angsty moment of the day came when I read an article in the Times, the most popular article in the Times today actually, about how horrifyingly informal students are in their emails to professors. The entire section of responses to the article was comprised of professor-written letters. Reminded of how horrifyingly informal my professors and TFs have been in their replies to my extremely polite communications, I wrote the Times:

While I share the horror of these professors and of Mr. Glater–and am amply armed to relate myriad impertinent comments made to professors–I would advance that professors as well as students bear responsibility for this new trend in student-professor communication.My rare emails to professors and teaching fellows are always formal. Their replies are not. More often than not, the formalities I carefully consider are disregarded–or even derided. Beyond the prerogative of the “more powerful” individual to reply in such a fashion as to reduce the level of formality, I have encountered dismissive replies filled with abbreviations, typed in all lower case or all capital letters, lacking punctuation, riddled with misspellings, and unadorned by either address or signature. My thanks for their replies are brushed off with irritation, as are my courtesies in person.

Anyone else had a terrifingly informal letter from a professor or feel that we’re being unfairly represented?