Instructors' perceptions of students and their use of email messages with varying politeness strategies
by San Bolkan* & Jennifer Linn Holmgren
from Communication Education: Volume 61, Issue 3, 2012
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| It's not your email I hate, it's you. |
The results are summarized pretty well in their Table 1, which shows the correlations between level of politeness of the message, the instructor's affect toward the student (e.g., "he's a fool"), the instructor's estimate of the student's probable success in the course(very low to very high), the instructor's perception of the student's competence, and the instructor's level of motivation to work with the student (i.e., acquiesce to the student's demands in the email).
They suggest that Affect ("I hate you") is the mediating factor that strongly influences an instructor's motivation to work with the student and his/her perception of that student's competence and likely success. The positive correlations mean that more politeness = more positive affect = higher motivation and greater perceived competence and likely success. There are a lot of juicy bits in the general discussion, but this one was my favorite:
If students are not mindful of their use of emails, their communication with professors could be problematic considering the negative effects of less polite messages. This is especially the case considering that Stephens et al. (2009) found that students are less bothered by casual or impolite emails than professors, and that Foral et al. (2010) found that faculty members perceive students’ tones change to be more unprofessional in email when compared to face-to-face interactions. Thus, students may be sending messages that harm their relationships with their instructors... If professors’ perceptions of students > are less favorable, students may not receive many of the benefits of out-of-class communication, and therefore may be diminishing their potential for academic success by reducing their instructors’ motivation to work with them and perceptions of their potential in class.
Checked out the journal issue (through our Uni library) and found lots of relevant goodies!
ReplyDeleteHa. This kid e-mailed me every 10 minutes for "help" with a paper but did not come to my office hours, used no salutation but "Hey Professor," and retorted with rude e-mails when I clarified policy for him.
ReplyDeleteMy hatred was extreme, and my willingness to give an inch was zero.
Drat. The database I'd get it through doesn't have the new issue up yet.
ReplyDeleteWell, duh. Lord, I wish that in my discipline I could get away with researching such bloody obvious topics.
ReplyDeleteBut until you have data, it's just an opinion.
DeleteConsidering that students are dumb enough not to know that emails such as the last email I received--"hey, i need you to change my grade to a B- because my tpa [sic] dropped because of the C in your class"--won't do the student any good, I'd say that while this kind of "research" is obvious, it also reinforces (now with RESEARCH) the notion that their emails and how they phrase them, DO matter to us, so it's not just US telling them so, but RESEARCH says so.
ReplyDeleteHypothesis: Humans may positively impact their ____ through the use of polite communication.
ReplyDeleteThis should have been taught at home, long before they were adults.
I'm with BPD. Hard to see getting tenure based on publications in the Journal Of No Shit, Sherlock. Congratulations, you've just demonstrated yet again that being rude to authority figures isn't a good strategy.
ReplyDeleteOn the up side, it's still funny.
I forget where I saw it (and at the risk of setting off a firestorm) but I once saw a claim that Social Science research findings come in two flavors:
Delete1. No shit, Sherlock.
2. I think your mother told you that when you were 5.
Well...that's kinda true, but as my Intro to Psych prof repeated over and over again, there ain't no such thing as common sense. Empirical validation can't be beat.
DeleteThese responses remind of the scene in the film 'Kinsey', where Professor Alfred Kinsey is disabusing two students from widely held misconceptions about sexual activity, and the male student disarms Prof Kinsey when he cannot back up any of his assertions with published research. Now, I can say "...and published research strongly suggests you should stop being a rude dumbass in your emails!"
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteEvery now and then, they do come up with something contrary to what everyone thinks they know. Some people think that it's OK for parents to host underage drinking parties in their home, "if it prevents them from driving drunk." A similar idea was that if we lower the drinking age, it would make it "not such a big deal," and "part of our culture, the way it is in Europe." A look at statistics shows that France and Denmark have much higher rates of alcoholism, as well as accidents and fatalities due to drunk driving, than in the U.S. If you want to slam a whole discipline, might I suggest the education school?
DeleteIf you want to slam a whole discipline, might I suggest the education school?
DeleteI'm cool with that.