Comments on: Hey, hi, do my work for me, will ya?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 05:26:20 +0000

I generally follow these rules, but I am glad I visited Crooked Timber today because I am trying to write an e-mail request as part of my job hunt and this gives me some criteria to apple to that.

Thanks,

King Dufus

By: jay

jay — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 05:58:26 +0000

Eszter, thanks for the nice article! I think I will hand it out to students on the first day of class in future semesters when I am teaching. I have been astounded at how wildly off the mark of expected tone emails from students can be.

By: vivian

vivian — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:15:14 +0000

“I plan on creating a “Contact me” page where I will link to this piece so people who write to me know what they need to include for me to be able to assist them.”
very minor suggestion: don’t link to it, include it on the page. Or make it into bullet points or something if the IHE folks don’t allow it.

By: Gracchi

Gracchi — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:29:01 +0000

Of course Ezster and I have to say that having worked with the guys who actually often go to ask the questions I saw at first hand how badly academics are treated and taken for granted by people.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:21:47 +0000

Those of you who are saying you’ve never had problems may not be on the receiving end of inquiries often, or are somehow incredibly fortunate to be receiving meaningful requests. My main motivation for writing the piece was the numerous ridiculous inquiries I get all the time. I plan on creating a “Contact me” page where I will link to this piece so people who write to me know what they need to include for me to be able to assist them. I am happy to help people out, but with the best of intentions, some of the emails are either impossible to answer meaningfully or would require a ton of work on my part.

By: Requesting assistance by e-mail « Could Be Worse

Requesting assistance by e-mail « Could Be Worse — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:50:59 +0000

[...] More discussion of the piece can be found at Crooked Timber. [...]

By: boos

boos — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:22:56 +0000

of course, you may write to someone who will never respond.

By: Georgiana

Georgiana — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:02:36 +0000

Neither have I had problems. Your format is standard for any business letter really, just adapted to the format (email is more casual). I’ve even used a version for telephone calls to good success.

And even when someone hasn’t been able to assist, generally I’ve received a gracious response and a suggestion about whom to contact next.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:00:34 +0000

Of course, one problem is that the people who are most likely to write pathetic notes are the least likely to read an article of this sort. But at least for those who care, perhaps this can offer some helpful pointers.
Silly or not, I still get terribly tense and nervous over cold-writing people, so it’s a helpful guide to have around. :)

By: Gracchi

Gracchi — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:47:00 +0000

I’ve never had too many problems either. But I worked at the BBC as a researcher for a while and found the attitude of TV producers towards academics fascinating- whereas you and I would go to a library first and then ask afterwards- they viewed my attempts to go to a library as a waste of time, I was actually told off for it at one point. Research meant ringing someone up and asking often fairly rudely for free help.

By: C.L. Ball

C.L. Ball — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:37:52 +0000

I basically follow these rules and never had any problems getting replies from other academics (off-prints, info about research, specific information).

That said, I’ve always been puzzled by the desire to have email look like a print letter. I think of email as a memo—so the “To” line substitutes for the honorific intros (e.g, “Dear Prof. Hagarti”).