Holidays provide students the opportunity to complete relevant tasks that could not be addressed during the academic year. From taking that much-anticipated trip to finding a job to generate funds for the upcoming year, holidays are essential for students.
Students aren’t the only ones who enjoy holidays. Professors may leverage such holidays to spend time with their families, prepare lessons for the upcoming academic year, research and write articles, or even take up a side hustle.
But while most students would be happy to be rid of academic work and anything to do with school for a few weeks, there may be times when it may become necessary to reach out to your professor.
Maybe you need to reach out to them for a recommendation or some form of help. Normally, approaching your professor for assistance by email would be simple, but how do you avoid upsetting them while they are on holiday?
This becomes necessary especially when positive feedback from the profession is crucial. So how do you send your professor an email during holidays? This article will aim to provide tips on doing this while also including some templates that can be leveraged for the purpose.
Professors like everyone else, have their lives to lead outside the classroom and holidays provide an opportunity to spend quality time with their families, visit places, hang out with friends outside work, and more.
It’s possible they may simply ignore your email during holidays. While some educational institutions, especially those online, recommend that professors respond to student emails, most do not mandate this.
During holidays, professors are not mandated to respond to any emails from students. Unfortunately, student pestering during holidays can lead to some professors simply ignoring messages from students.
So how do you email your professor while increasing the likelihood that they will read it and potentially respond?
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Do not use your personal email address to contact your professor. Students are given school email addresses for a reason. Use your school-issued email account to get in touch with your professor.
This increases the likelihood of the teacher seeing your email as it’ll land in their inbox. Emails from outside the school to the professor’s school email could end up in the spam folder.
Anyone using the school’s email can receive emails inside the school’s network because the school’s email addresses are whitelisted on the same network. You certainly don’t want to spend time meticulously crafting an email to your lecturer only to discover that they never got it.
Keep in mind that professors receive emails from students who may want their grades changed or other reasons at the end of the term. It’s advisable to ensure that your email includes a clear subject.
Typical examples include:
Happy holidays from John Doe
Request for a letter of recommendation for graduate school
Use the instructor’s appropriate title when addressing them. It may seem like a simple mistake when you address a professor as a Dr., but academics can be quite keen about their titles.
Avoid addressing professors as doctors as the title means a lot to them. Recognize their position and make sure you are familiar with their official titles. Use their official titles (Dr., Professor) when addressing them to avoid making a bad impression.
Professors may have taught hundreds of students, if not thousands in their lifetimes. Even in cases where they may have or may have had a good relationship with you, it’s better to help them remember who you are.
Don’t give them extra work to go through their list of students to identify which class you may be in. They’d most likely ignore your email and focus on other pressing matters.
Make it easy for them to recognize you by providing your full name, and your class, if you’re still in school.
Regardless of your relationship with the professor, don’t use colloquial language while communicating via professional email. In your email, stay away from acronyms, emoticons, and other slang terms. Avoid bringing up personal details that are unrelated to the conversation or subject.
The role of a professor is to educate their students and they expect students at that level of education to have good grammatical skills. Writing an email that’s difficult to read will lead to the professor ignoring your email.
If you aren’t confident in your writing, let a third party read carefully read through the email before submission. Additionally, you can leverage tools like Grammarly to help identify errors in your writing. Keep in mind that these tools aren’t perfect. It’s advisable to go through your writing to identify any errors.
Try and clearly convey your specific need in only a few sentences. Professors are busy and won’t have time to read lengthy emails. Avoid filling your sentences with words that would obviously require a dictionary to make a sentence understandable.
Being polite in your email can go a long way toward scoring points in your favor. Ensure that the tone of your email is polite and the necessary respect is being conveyed. Irrespective of any negative impressions you might have of the professor, it’s advisable to show them respect in your communication.
At this point, you need to show appreciation to the professor for taking the time to read up to the end of the email. Simply thank them for their time and sign off your email with “Sincerely” or “Best regards” followed by your full name.
While some professors may distance themselves from work and related issues during their holidays, most would enable email notifications on their phones or actively check their emails a few times a day.
Keep in mind that it may take longer for them to respond to your email during holidays. Don’t expect an instant response.
Refrain from spamming them every few hours with reminders as they may simply block or delete the emails without reading out of annoyance. If you don’t receive feedback the same day, wait till the next day to send a follow-up email.
Refrain from sending follow-up emails to the professor every day as a single reminder or follow-up email is enough. Keep in mind they’re not mandated to answer your email during holidays. Spamming them with emails would simply get them angry.
Email Subject
Saying Thank You
Body
My name is Your name>>, and I was in your Class name>>. I wanted to say that it was a pleasure having you as my lecturer and I hope to take more of your future classes. Thanks for all the help through this quarter.
Email Subject
Body
I am Your name>> from your Class name>> and just emailing to thank you for a great quarter. I learned a lot from your class and you are hands down one of the best professors I have had.
Thank you and hope to see you again. Wishing you a merry Christmas and a Happy new year.
Email Subject
Body
I am Your name>> from your Class name>>. Your class is one of my favorites and I enjoyed every second of it. I want to wish you and your family happy holidays and also thank you for being a great lecturer. I hope to take more of your future classes.
Yes. While it’s not compulsory, a professor might get a happy thought knowing that one of their students appreciates their effort. They would value the thought regardless of when they read the email, even if they don’t see it over the holidays.
That said, it’s advisable to send such emails to the professor’s school email to avoid any issues.
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