Emailing Wallace, everyone except currently enrolled students

Please just email me at jwallace@berkeley.edu. If I haven't answered it is almost certainly because the email was so interesting I set it aside to find a good time to answer, then it got lost in the flood of incoming emails, or you just happened to contact me at a particularly busy time and it just wasn't possible to answer. I try to avoid this. Apologies ahead of time.

Emailing Wallace, students currently enrolled in one of my classes

Subject Lines of Class-related Emails

I use predetermined email subject lines to help my mail program sort incoming emails into smart folders. Incorrectly written subject lines can delay the grading of an assignment or create an impression that the student submits late or, in worse case, make an assignment invisible to me and it is subsequently graded as a zero. I try to avoid any of these things but at very busy times of the semester the student could get some sort of unwanted result. Please be careful to type subject lines correctly.

Use this template

Basic keywords: gradeissue (anything at all having to do with grades, including questions about specific assignments, illness, attendance, everything), question (any random question), extracredit (about extra credit or me giving you extra credit)

Example

Email subject lines will look like the below. The blue will be the same for every email for that class for the whole term. The green will change, depending.

J7A_RP01_SUZUKI_Aya genji

Notes

THERE ARE NO SPACES EVER IN ANY PART OF THE SUBJECT LINE, USE UNDERLINES INSTEAD (this is so my computer will alphabetize student submissions correctly)

Please number like this 01, 02, 03 .... 10, 11, 12 not like this 1, 2, 3, ... 10, 11, 12 (this is for the same reason)

The above system is REQUIRED for submissions. I appreciate it being used at other times, too, but please don't hesitate to write just because you forgot the system.

Powerpoint

Here is a PPT that has examples of the above: communication.ppt

Reasons why it is this way:

• I realize that it is a bit odd-feeling to write your name in the subject line. However, students use a variety of email addresses and I cannot recognize you via your email address. Students sometimes forget to write their name in the email and often write only their first name. This doesn't always identify you clearly to me. And, frankly, sometimes a student's email address looks similar to an email address of a student with whom I've had a bad experience. You can be unconsciously associated with the wrong person. (Of course, you could be unconsciously associated with a strong student, too. :-) But I think most of you just want to be associated with you.)
• I memorize the first name you've given me for class. Beyond that I generally know names, but the first name is almost for sure what I would type into my computer to "find" you...and the name I will remember beyond the end of class.
• I ask for the class number because some students have more than one class with me at a time. When a student asks a general question like "When is the test?" and forgets to specify which class — and we are all busy and emails like this happen more often than you might think — the student and I won't need an extra "tag" round of emails where first I ask "Which class?" then the student answers, then I answer. There are other reasons for asking class designation, too.