RULE ZERO: I ask that you send emails and not Canvas messages. Canvas messages are 1) Not convenient since they require logging in and clicking a bunch 2) Prevent responses from being received 3) Do not work after the course has ended. If you want a guaranteed and more timely response, send an email and not a Canvas message.
1) The Gremlin Rule: Please do not email me after midnight. While I am a night owl, I do not email after midnight because sleep, boundaries, and mental health are important. If you do not get the Gremlins reference, watch Gremlins 1 + 2. You're welcome.
2) Attendance: Please email me if you're not going to be in class. If you miss class and forget or could not email, please email me after. This rule is for extra recordkeeping and academic integrity purposes. Please do not ask me if I am taking attendance or think that not emailing me means I will not notice excessive absences. Remember that missing more than 80% of the class (usually 8 classes in a semester) means you automatically fail the course, even if you turned in all assignments.
3) Private Professor Requests: When you miss class, please do not email me asking what you missed. The end of the syllabus schedule lists details what we will be covering in class that day, and covering the entire hour+ class for your individually is not my responsibility nor my job. Come to office hours if you need to have a brief rundown of a class's session.
4) Brevity: Please keep emails brief. Shorter emails means I can respond quicker but also makes you brief in and more responsible for what you send to others.
5) Organize, number, bullet: If you have multiple questions, first consider writing separate emails if questions are on separate assignments. If on the same assignment, the quickest way to get a response is to write answerable questions. If the questions are put into a numbered or bulleted format, they are easier to answer since you'll know the answer is to a specific question. A wall of text with half questions or ones that I have to spend more time parsing out the formatting to for your accessibility usually takes more time and difficulty than the problem at hand. Students are most frustrated, in my experience, by not knowing what is meant by a response or to what (therefore having to send more emails), and I have diagnosed that is it is often because of what I have spelled out here.
6) Repetition: Please do not send the same email more than once. If by chance I missed an email, which is rare, send a follow up after two business days have passed.
7) Extension requests: I allow a two-day extension on assignments if requested in a reasonable amount of time before it is due. Reasonable means not an hour before it is due. Plan for remedying procrastination and do not abuse this privilege—I have every right to revoke it. Also, I do not need to know every personal detail going on to grant the request. I ask that you do not lie but also not treat me as a mental health professional. I care about my students, but again, brevity and boundaries are important.
8) Be Polite: Please do not be rude or accusatory. At the same time, there's no need to suck up or overly apologize. Politeness means treating issues we may have as problems we want to solve together. Also, be polite to your classmates. Remember, in professional settings, that email stands for evidence mail. If you think this does not sound like a big deal, it has been the biggest deal for some students in the past.
9) Put a clear subject line on your email. Avoid vague subject lines such as "Assignment" or "Class."
10) If emailing from an outside account (not recommended), please make sure to identify who you are.
11) Begging/Flattery: Outside of input errors, please do not email me begging me to "fix" a grade or "if there's anything you can do about a grade," even if I am your "favorite professor." I cannot accommodate any of these requests, and they will be received as manipulation up to possible misconduct. No student will be receiving opportunities that other students did not receive. Profuse apologies about what could've, should've, would've went better if X, Y, Z life conditions were different include those opportunities.
12) You should be emailing me on your behalf and no one else. If I receive an email from a parent or other person unaffiliated with the college (even if your parent is a professor here), I am unobligated to respond.