Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Venting....One Moment Please....

These are the emails that people of this generation are turning out:

"It want let me register for XXX"

 "Hello Professor,
  My name is XXX and im in your english 120 class. Please excuse my absent because i have the stomach flu it last for 2 to 3 days and its contagious so i have no choice but to miss class"
(P.S. I don't teach English 120)

 "hello i am having trubble geting my classes set for winter.so i was wondering if you could email me step by step. thats so much."

On one hand, I feel cruel because these students are just beginning college and need to learn the ropes.
On the other hand, they can't put together proper emails or spell.
This is a  small example of the emails I get on a daily basis. 
I really just don't get it.
I'm thankful that I grew up in the '90s.

4 comments:

  1. I can see how annoying this must be, yet at the same time you don't want to enable the person(s) by simply correcting their emails, but feel an obligation to guide them to services. This is a struggle I have (as well as my co-workers) when providing services at work. There are so many people who feel entitled to each and every service, and most of the time, we really have to break it down for our callers (e.g. eligibility requirements, funding statuses, etc.). Good grief though! You'd think by college that most kids would have become acquainted with basic punctuation and grammar.

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  2. Yeah I never necessarily correct their emails but the way that people (not just 18 year olds, older students, too) present themselves to people who can affect their grades or provide services, astound me. And these were literally only two of about ten emails I received that day with the same kind of issue.

    People feeling entitled always pisses me off! I bet you get that so much and I just think of those that really do deserve help but don't have the power/knowledge of how to reach out.

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  3. One of my cousins gets comments on her Facebook that are written exactly like those emails. She’s 17 and intelligent, but I worry about some of her friends. That being said, if you ever get an email like that from someone who speaks English as their second language, I would correct it. I know my old PLU students always appreciated the help. Heck, I would probably correct all of them. Maybe that will help them to see how unprofessional they appear.

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  4. I only work with those speaking English, all freshman and who should be able to write proper emails. We tried letting them know in class what a proper email looks like and we still get three word ones with no actual understanding of what they want! They kind of just don't care.

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