Students in Professor Spalding's courses use email as their primary
means of communicating with Prof. Spalding outside of the classroom.
Email Protocols in Prof. Spalding's Class
To ensure that Prof. Spalding receives and reads your email, follow the
following protocols at all times:
- Use your own email account, not someone else's. You may
use your
Wayne State AccessID
Email Account or any other email account, so long as you are the
only
person who reads your email on that account: no one except you
should
be able to read your course-related email. Credit will not be
given
to email assignments and related email sent from someone else's email
account
or mailbox.
- Always include your name and course Call
Number
(CRN) in the Subject line of your email message, followed by
the
subject
of your email. Do not include your student number, the course
number,
or other information. Leave at least one blank space on either side of
your CRN, and
do
not put the CRN in parentheses, quotes, etc. Example of the
Subject
line of a student's email message: "John Doe 37046 First Email
Assignment" (where 37046 represents the CRN
for
the section of the course in which the student is enrolled). If
either
the name or CRN are missing, the email will
likely
not be routed properly on Prof. Spalding's email filter system, and the
student will possibly lose credit for the email, or not receive a
response,
or both.
- User both upper and lower case, rather than ALL CAPS.
- Never attach files. Do not attach any files.
This
includes
picture files, graphics, "business card" or "vCard" files, or any other
attachments. Instead, copy the text from your word processor to
your
clipboard, and then into the body of your email message. Messages
with attached files are not opened, and are disregarded entirely,
because
they sometimes contain viruses. Examination materials and
research
papers are NOT sent by email, but are instead uploaded on the Digital
Drop
Box function of the Blackboard
site for this course.
- Make sure your return address on your emails is
correct. Set up
your
outgoing email so that your identity and your own email address is a
correct,
working email address. Also make sure that your own email mailbox is
not full.
"Auto-Response" Messages from Prof. Spalding's Computer
Prof. Spalding often receives hundreds of emails in a single day, many
of which are junk mail or other lower priority messages. Student
email, however, is Prof. Spalding's top priority.
Therefore,
emails that are not from current students are often filtered and sent
to
a "junk mail" or "trash" section of Prof. Spalding's computer before
Prof.
Spalding sees them, so that he can concentrate on student email.
It is therefore very important that your email to Prof. Spalding
conforms
to the above protocols, so that your email survives the filtering
system
and shows up on Prof. Spalding's screen.
Emails that do not conform to the above protocols (e.g.,
messages
with
"ALL CAPS," messages with one or more file attached, etc.) are filtered
out by Prof. Spalding's email system and automatically sent to the
"junk
mail" or "trash" area. Sometimes an "auto-response" message also
is sent to you by Prof. Spalding's computer, indicating that your email
did not survive the filtering system, and suggesting that you re-send
your
email after carefully re-reading and following these
protocols.
When this happens, do not assume that Prof. Spalding has seen or has
read
your non-conforming email. Instead, fix the problem and re-send
the
email to Prof. Spalding so that your email will arrive as a top
priority
item, and he will be able to see and read your message.
Save your Work
It is strongly recommended that you save as a separate computer file
the
text that you have copied into your email message and have sent to
Prof.
Spalding. You will likely need to refer back to that text at some
point, and on rare occasions (such as a network glitch) you might asked
to re-send the material a second time. It is also a good idea to
email to yourself an extra copy of any emails you send to Prof.
Spalding,
so that you have a record of your email. Most email programs allow you
to "cc:" yourself when you send an email to someone else.
Setting Up Your Computer for Email
You can send email to Prof. Spalding from any campus computer that is
linked
to the Internet. If you wish to set up your computer at home or
at
work for email, the following information will likely prove helpful.
Email requires three things: Internet access, an email
account or email mailbox, and a software program that allows
students
to retrieve their email:
Internet Access. Wayne State provides free Internet
access
for students at it's various computing centers. Help for using WSU AccessIDs for email and
dial-in
is available by calling (313) 577-4778, by emailing
the C&IT Help Desk, or by consulting the C&IT
Help Pages.
