Writing an e-mail

You may need to contact a teacher or another Faculty employee at any time during your studies. Writing an e-mail is a fairly common affair in a faculty environment, but it is not always simple. With that in mind, the following recommendations will help you.

Always salute the addressee at the beginning of the e-mail. A simple “Good Morning” is enough, but if you want to write a really polite e-mail, start with “Dear Ms/Dear Mr…” and add the addressee’s highest academic degree. You can find this on the Faculty website or in the SIS (RNDr. before the name or Ph.D. after the name; Doctor, Associate Professor, or Professor before the name).

Then, explain what your message is about. Mention the specific subject (preferably including its code as well) that your question or the work you are sending relates to. At the end of the e-mail, do not forget to thank the addressee for their help and sign it.

If you are not using your Faculty e-mail account (we strongly recommend that you do), you can also include your year of study and the abbreviation or full title of the field/programme you are studying. This way, the teacher will know who you are.

Think carefully about the subject of your e-mail. It may play a big role in determining whether and how quickly the addressee will respond to your e-mail. If you want to ask a question, do not just write “Question” – try to be more specific. For example, “Question: Course Credits – Anthropology”. Most teachers will not be enthusiastic about e-mails with subjects such as “URGENT!!!!” or without any subject at all.

Remember that if you write an e-mail well and politely, you will get a helpful reply.

Be careful if you use your private e-mail – your messages may end up in the spam bin. This is especially true if you use nicknames or abbreviations and if your account is managed on an untraditional domain. If you choose not to use the e-mail account provided by the Faculty, we recommend that you set up a personal e-mail account with an address containing your first name and surname on a domain such as gmail.com.