TWIG: Writing Academic Emails Xiaoqing (Stefanie), Alaina, Lifeng (Eva) Description of Instructional Need: Writing emails is probably the most common writing task for college students. It has become part of the fabric of academic communication. Students write emails to their instructor, academic advisor, staff members, and other people in this academic context both for exchanging information and socialization. As many ESL students are not familiar with writing academic emails in English, when they write academic emails, they might not have a clear idea of how to write academically and adopt a proper voice. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Therefore, it is imperative for students to learn and follow the conventions of writing academic emails. Description of Overall Goals and Objectives: In order to write good academic emails, ESL students need to know the common rules of this specific genre in academic writing. They are also expected to know that there is no universal agreement on writing academic emails, and the rules they follow need to be modified for each specific context. Therefore, the objectives of the TWIG workshop in writing good academic emails are designed to introduce the differences between academic emails and general emails. Students will become familiar with the general rules in writing academic emails and be able to adapt the general rules to specific topics in different contexts. These general rules include: 1) a complete academic email format is constituted of a subject line, a greeting headline, and a closing part, 2) an appropriate subject line and greeting, 3) a clear, concise and to-the-point message that uses a polite and respectful tone, 4) correct spelling, punctuation and grammar, etc. Description of TWIG for Students: Emails have become an essential form of academic communication with instructors, academic advisors, peers, and many others for a successful university student. This three hour workshop is broken up into three sections that are designed to help you become familiar with the general rules of writing academic emails. While no universal agreement on writing academic emails exists, when students send emails that do not meet a professor s expectations, misunderstandings and miscommunication can occur. This workshop will help you to recognize the different aspects of an academic email that help create a clear and effective email. By the end of this workshop you will be able to adapt the general rules of academic emails to specific topics and different contexts in order to create appropriate and clear academic emails.
Curriculum for TWIG: Part I Goals: The main purpose of this lesson is to have students begin to think critically about what constitutes an appropriate email for general academic situations. Objectives: -Students will consider what contexts require academic emails -Students will begin to think about what constitutes an appropriate and effective email for academic situations Unit: Needs Assessment and orientation Group Discussion (15 min) Write Individually (10 min) Description of Activity Using the prompt questions from the handout 1 (see appendix 1), the teacher will encourage a group discussion about email use in general terms. By the end of this activity, students will have generated as a group some common topics when writing emails in an academic setting. If students have difficulties generating the contextual topics, the teacher may give several as reference, for instance, making or cancelling an appointment with a professor/adviser, asking for an assignment extension, course consultation or instruction clarification, etc. Using one of the common topics from the prior group discussion (each group will focus on only one topic) group members will individually create an email that includes all the elements they believe to be necessary for effective, appropriate email communication for the scenario given. Rationale This acts as a warm-up activity to start students thinking about the different contexts in which emails appear, how they might need to address this change in context, and the effects of not addressing the change in context. Additionally, this activity helps to lead into the individual activity by creating common ground beforehand. This activity acts in part as a needs assessment. Through this exercise we hope we and the students will be able to recognize some common difficulties that the students encounter in academic emails.
Teacher-lead Instruction (10 min) Peer Review (15 min) Teacher-lead Discussion / Mini Lecture (10 min) Before setting up the following peer review activity, the teacher will lead the students through the checklist (see appendix 2) by discussing and explaining the criteria of each item, as well as checking for students understanding. Students will review one or two (depending on time) of their peers emails, paying particular attention to the items mentioned on the email checklist handout 2 (see appendix 2). As a group, the teacher will lead a discussion on if students found any particular points challenging in the email activity (e.g. what to write for the subject line, what greeting to use, etc.), as well as the differences between emails for academic writing and personal writing. By discussing and explaining the criteria in the checklist, students will be able to use the handout effectively. Through this activity students will begin to pay attention to the different parts of an academic email and possible problem areas. This will give more explicit instruction on what the students will have hopefully been starting to discover for themselves from the previous two activities. This also serves as a way to move into the next section of the lesson. Part II Goals: The main purpose of this lesson is to have students intuitively come up with writing conventions by analyzing and revising authentic email texts in academic settings. Objectives: -Students will be able to identify specific rules needed to produce a proper academic email. -Students will get hands-on experience to modify problematic emails and therefore refine and redefine their knowledge of writing proper academic email with appreciate words, voice, etc. Unit: Engagement Teacher-lead Compare & Contrast (15 min) Description of Activity The teacher will present the students with two formal and informal emails addressing the same topic (paper revising request for professor) on PPT (see appendix 3) and ask for students opinions. The teacher will then(or is it the students?) summarize the rules of how to write in a proper way (with the Rationale By compare and contrast the two emails, the teacher will lead an instructional interaction with students to analyze why one is more appropriate than the other. Therefore, students will generate general knowledge of the appropriateness of academic setting email writing.
core elements of a polite request being: do not impose, give options, make the receiver feed good) Phrase Bank Analysis (5min) Discourse Analysis (5 min) Small Group Discussion (15 min) A phrase bank (see appendix 4) will be distributed to students and students are free to talk through it in groups. This is an in-class modeling to show students explicitly the codes of appropriateness and inappropriateness. The whole class will be assigned five email writing samples to read (see appendix 4). Students will be asked to work individually at first to analysis. Students can use the checklist they used for peer review for guidance. Students will form groups of five to discuss their findings, sort out aspects that need further improvements and come up with solutions to help the author by revising this email. Based on students general knowledge they have just refined in the last activity, this part is a derivation of the previous one to help students foster their general knowledge into specific applications hence letting them be able to identify appropriateness and inappropriateness in an academic email. This activity provides students an opportunity to reflect on their preknowledge of the conventions they already know in writing an academic email. By comparing and contrasting the problems revealed in the assigned email texts with their intuitive knowledge, and by negotiating through the context and content, students are expected to gain more insights into how to frame an appropriate and effective academic email. This is a reinforcement of the previous activity. The activity aids students to refine and redefine the knowledge of email writing by sharing ideas and thoughts with other group members. Group Presentation (20 min) As group, use the board to present their findings and their solution and elaborate on the reason why they revise the email in these certain ways. This checks for understanding, provides an opportunity for self and peer correction, and allows students to benefit from the findings of their peers. Part III Goals: The main purpose of this lesson is to let students know that there is no universal agreement on writing academic emails, and the rules they follow need to be modified in every specific context. Objectives: -Students will learn to adapt the general rules to specific topics in different context.
-Students will pay more attention in writing their academic emails, especially the format, content and politeness. Unit: Evaluation and extension Description of Activity Rationale Collective Writing on the Board (20 min) Students will work in groups to revise emails on topics they have written at the beginning of the first session. Each group will write one topic together on the blackboard. This time, students may use any of the handouts for reference. After the small group discussion, students will come up with their rules in writing a good academic email. In order to access their understanding of these general rules, an in class email composition is needed. Group presentation (30 min total- 5 min/group) Wrap-up (10 min) After they have all written their emails on the blackboard, each group will explain to the whole class the rules they have followed in composing the email and the rational of writing in this way. Teacher s mini lecture: the teacher will summarize what have been taught in the workshop and give students some useful websites, reference book they can use as supplement. By doing this activity, first we can evaluate students understanding of what they have just learned in the class, to see if they learned and understood the general rules in writing academic emails. Second, by extending the content and topic of the emails, students are expected to learn to apply these general rules into different social contexts, for instance, making or cancelling an appointment with professor/adviser, asking for assignment extension, or instruction clarification, etc. By analyzing themselves the rules they have followed, the changes they have made, and the reason of writing in that way, they will have a deeper and engaging understanding of the rules in writing a good academic email. There is no universal agreement on the format, style, or uses of email. So the workshop we offered is only a suggestion to help students write a better academic email than before.
Appendix 1 Handout 1: Prompt questions for group discussion in part 1 1. How often do you write emails? 2. Who do you usually write for? 3. What are the difficulties you once encountered while writing email? 4. Can you identify the different aspects of casual emails and academic emails? (What differences do you think of when you write emails to your professor and to your family or friends?) 5. What types of topics do you usually write about to your professor or advisor? 6. Have you ever encountered any similarities or differences in the conventions of writing emails in your native language and English?
Appendix 2 Handout 2: Checklist for peer review in part 1 Reminder: Imagine yourself as the reader who receives this email, read through your peer s email and think about the following questions: Item Criteria Yes No Format Does the email include a subject line, a greeting headline and a closing part? Subject Line Does the email include an informative subject? Does the subject highlight the issue? Does the subject help readers to prioritize? Greetings Is the writer aware of the audience to whom he/she is writing to? Does the email open with an appropriate greeting? Is the reader s proper title used? (ex Dr. Baldanza) Content Is the content pertinent to the subject? Does the email have clear, short sentences/paragraphs with to-the-point messages? Does the writer consider how much the reader knows or doesn t know about the writer and the subject? Has the intention of the email been clarified with adequate emphasis? Does the email include appropriate details for the information it wants to convey? Does the email show a clear relationship between ideas? Does the email have irrelevant information? If the email has an attachment, does the writer state what it is? (You may not encounter this issue in the activity, but it is an important aspect that needs your attention) Style Is the email written using active voice? Does the tone of the email consider the relationship between the sender and receiver? Is the email free of emoticons? (ex: ) Closing Does the email have an appropriate closing? Editing Does the email use correct spelling? Does the email use correct punctuation? Does the email use clear transitions? Is the grammar correct? (Check carefully on uses of subject-verb agreement, consistent tenses, consistency of pronouns, etc.)
Appendix 3 PPT To: Henry Rabkin From: Kumar Bhatia Subject: Paper I am currently working on a paper (approx 8/9 pages). I should be done on Mon. evening. Could you please go through it & give your comments by Wednesday? Kumar To: Henry Rabkin From: Kumar Bhatia Subject: About the revised paper Dear professor Rabkin, I am Kumar Bhatia, a student from the course ENG 501. I am currently working on the final paper titled **** (approximately 8/9 pages). I should be done on Monday evening. If you are not too busy, I would appreciate any comments you might have to make before I submit it. I wonder if we could schedule a time so I can bring my draft to you when it is done. I am happy to adjust to your schedule. Best regards, Kumar
Appendix4
Appendix 5 Handout 3: Five email samples for activity in part 2 The emails below were written by real ESL015 students. They wrote this email to a professor, Dr. David Mills, who they did not know before, to ask for permission (request) to observe his class. 1. Subject: Could I observe one session of AN SC 201 class? Dear Professor Mills, I am *******, freshman. Could I observe the AN SC 201 class at 9:00 am on the next Wednesday(10/24),please? Thank You. Best, ******** 2. Subject: ask a permission to observe class Dear Dr. David: This is ******** who major in Science. I writing this email try to ask a permission to observe one session of AN SC 201 class. The time of this class is on 9:00-9:50am on every Monday Wednesday and Friday. I really interested in this class and want to have a chance to listen it. If you can give me a permission please send me back. Thank you very much! Best wishes! ******* 3. Subject: class observation Dear Professor David Mills, My name is ******, a first year student of Penn State. I am quite interested in the animal science, and I wanna observe one session of ur class. I will be free next Monday morning, so is that ok that I go to that session of AN SC 201 class at 9:00 am on Monday? Thank you very much ; ) Yours, ****** 4. Subject: Dear David Mills: I'm ******, a student from the College of Engineering of PSU. Maybe you have never heard of my name, but your name is the first name my friend told me when I ask for help about Dairy&Animal Science to one of my friend Jack Waston, a student of your AN SC 201 class.
Here I have a presumptuous request that I wonder if you could permit me to observe one session of AN SC 201, which is hold during 9:00am-9:50am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, in the semester of Spring 2013. Since I would have a subject on Biology Engineering, which needs concepts and knowledge about animal science, I think if I can join in your lecture I will benefit a lot from your class. But your class is so popular that I can't add your course on Elion. So would you please just let me observe your class in Spring 2013, that will be really helpful to me! If it doesn't bother you too much, could you give me reply before Oct. 21, this Sunday, since I have to schedule my course. Thank you so much! Best regards! ******* 5. Subject: Class observation request Dear Professor Mills, My name is ******* and I am a Penn State student majoring in Economics. I am interested in learning Animal Science course, and decided to take AN SC 201 class for my general education next semester. Do you mind if I enter and observe one session of AN SC 201 class, which starts at 9:00am and ends at 9:50 a.m. on next Monday, Wednesday or Friday? Which day do you think is appropriate for me to come? I hope that I can get a general overview about the course before I take it next semester. Thank you. Regards, ********
Reference Booher, D. (2001). E-writing: 21st-century tools for effective communication. Pocket Books. Emmerson, P. (2004). email English. Macmillan. Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (Vol. 1). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.