Class Conduct, Speaking & Email Policies
Expectations for Student Conduct While in Class
For some classes, showing up with a desire to watch the teacher perform while you sit with a smile on your face and constitutes being a good student. Here, that won’t really be enough.
Unlike many other classes you’ll take at university, this class is workshop based: not one day will pass without you being asked to produce writing at home, to bring in a copy of that writing, and to be ready to talk about in class. It’s impossible to run a workshop with some students who are ready, and some who are not.This means you are expected both to attend class, AND to be ready to work. To me, “ready to work” means the following:
If you show up to class and haven’t done your writing assignment, you’ll need to work on your assignment alone in class, while the rest of us work in editing team pairs.
For some classes, showing up with a desire to watch the teacher perform while you sit with a smile on your face and constitutes being a good student. Here, that won’t really be enough.
Unlike many other classes you’ll take at university, this class is workshop based: not one day will pass without you being asked to produce writing at home, to bring in a copy of that writing, and to be ready to talk about in class. It’s impossible to run a workshop with some students who are ready, and some who are not.This means you are expected both to attend class, AND to be ready to work. To me, “ready to work” means the following:
- You arrive to class on time. If you are running late, you arrive in the class with your coat off, your materials in your hand, and are committed to getting in your seat quickly and quietly, without distracting people who are already in the flow of things.
- You arrive with last night’s assignment. Because we do so much peer editing in this class, most students prefer to bring their laptops and tablets to class and work that way.
- You arrive ready to work. “Working” means staying on focus, with your phone silenced, and your laptop with instant messages off. It means being far more interested in what is transpiring in the room than in the food you are eating, the text message that just arrived, or the hot guy or girl sitting next to you. It means when I ask you to shift seats or work with someone else, you do so quickly and quietly, without eye rolling, idle chatter, or five minutes of “stuff collecting” drama attached. It means approaching the hour and fifteen minutes we spend together in this class with the same sort of dedication and singularity of purposes you are probably familiar with from sports, music, drama, art, or serious video game playing. It means being in it to win it.
- By contrast, “not working” involves being absent or late, not having done required reading, not bringing that reading to class to discuss, or not being capable to articulate any thoughts about what you’ve been asked to read. It can also mean routinely coming across as unfocused, disorganized, or unable to handle the routine distractions that come with living in New York City (e.g. the train being late cannot be your story every time you wander in fifteen minutes late.)
- Finally, “not working” can also mean “displaying an obvious lack of interest or enthusiasm.” I’m interested in working with students who are excited to be here, or who have the capacity to fake it. I insist you learn to fake it not because I’m emotionally needy, or because I want you to be emotionally dishonest, but because when you enter the professional world, you will be expected to at least seem engaged with whatever anyone puts in front of you. Students who cannot learn this tend to be the ones passed over later for job promotions, dismissed out of hand not for their efforts, but for because of that “bad attitude” thing.
If you show up to class and haven’t done your writing assignment, you’ll need to work on your assignment alone in class, while the rest of us work in editing team pairs.
Let's Talk about Speaking
Are you Quiet?
In addition to writing, you’ll also be required to speak in this class, both to one another in pairs, and with our group as a whole. If you are the sort of student who struggles to speak up in class, I have a great deal of compassion for you, but you still need to talk. If you are on the shy side, drop me a piece of email, or speak with me after class: I’ve spent years working with shy students and have lots of tricks that can help you feel more natural contributing in a group setting.
By contrast, if you are the sort of student who dominates class discussions, I am going to ask that you start working with me to learn new ways to listen to others without getting impatient. I’m also going to start training you to encourage quieter students to voice their thoughts—a skill that can turn you from a gifted (but at times, socially alienating) student into a terrific teacher, editor, manager, or coordinator.
Delivered without criticality or compassion, discussions about writing often do more harm than good, which is why a decent writing teacher won’t even permit such discussions without with certain ground rules (“codes of conduct,” if you will) firmly in place. In class, we’ll spend a fair amount of time talking about those ground rules. You’ll be expected to abide by them throughout the semester, and you’ll have the right to demand that others to treat you and your writing likewise.
In addition to writing, you’ll also be required to speak in this class, both to one another in pairs, and with our group as a whole. If you are the sort of student who struggles to speak up in class, I have a great deal of compassion for you, but you still need to talk. If you are on the shy side, drop me a piece of email, or speak with me after class: I’ve spent years working with shy students and have lots of tricks that can help you feel more natural contributing in a group setting.
By contrast, if you are the sort of student who dominates class discussions, I am going to ask that you start working with me to learn new ways to listen to others without getting impatient. I’m also going to start training you to encourage quieter students to voice their thoughts—a skill that can turn you from a gifted (but at times, socially alienating) student into a terrific teacher, editor, manager, or coordinator.
Delivered without criticality or compassion, discussions about writing often do more harm than good, which is why a decent writing teacher won’t even permit such discussions without with certain ground rules (“codes of conduct,” if you will) firmly in place. In class, we’ll spend a fair amount of time talking about those ground rules. You’ll be expected to abide by them throughout the semester, and you’ll have the right to demand that others to treat you and your writing likewise.
Email Policies
Did You Get My Email?
I want to say a bit about how we communicate through email. The watchword here is “professional.” Assume yours is one of about two hundred pieces of mail I receive each day (no exaggeration.) Assume I am personally communicating with more than one hundred students this semester in three different classes (I am.) Assume I teach more than one section of this particular class (I do.) Assume want to hear from you, but I also want you to re-introduce yourself and give me some context for your mail.
Etiquette for Question-Related Email
All email containing questions should include a clear message line, a quick explanation of who you are and what class you in, and the question you want to pose. Here’s a nice example of great question-related email etiquette:
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Blackboard Troubles
Hi Terri,
This is Nancy Silver from 9:30 CF3. I’m having trouble retrieving the document from Blackboard called “White Walls and the Sublime.” I see the title, but when I click, it doesn’t download anything. Is this a problem on my end, or is the document not there?i
Etiquette For Submitting Writing Drafts via Email
All email containing writing drafts for meetings should include a clear message line, a quick explanation of who you are and what class you are in, and what documents you’ve attached to the email. Here is an example of great email etiquette re. drafts:
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Draft material for our meeting on Wed. at 3:30
Hi Terri,
This is Nancy Silver from 9:30 CF3. I’ve attached two documents to this email.Doc. 1 has the writing I’d like us to go over for our meeting on Wednesday at 3:30. Doc 2 has the questions and concerns I have about what I’ve written. Looking forward to getting your feedback.
Thanks,
Nancy
Regarding email and timing:
Certainly, you must check your Slack and NYU email account once a day, the same way you’d be expected to do at any job. I check my accounts far more than that, but on days where I am teaching and holding blocks of office hours, I can go hours without checking or responding to email. My thinking is always that live bodies in front of me take priority over virtual bodies in my email inbox.
What it means to get an “MR” Email From Me
Almost every class, a student comes up to me and asks the question, “Did you get my email?” To nip this in the bud, I’m going to institute a new policy. Whenever I get a message of mail from you, I will respond with the initials “MR” (stands for message received) to let you know that I got what you sent. Sometimes I am rushing around and need a minute to answer the question you’ve asked. The quick “MR” mail is meant to let you know I’m on the case.
Writing “Second Request” Emails
If you sent email and didn’t get an “MR” response within a day’s time, feel free to drop me another piece of mail. If you got an “MR” response from me but haven’t heard anything else for two days, you can also send a second email. Mark anything you’ve send twice with the header “Second Request,” as in “Second Request: Web site access Problems over here.”
I never take offense at mail marked “second request,” because sometimes things fall through the cracks, and I would much prefer you to re-send a request than assume I don’t care about you or your needs. If you label that email “Second Request” it will shoot to the tip of my list of things to deal with. That said, do not send mail marked “second request” without letting at least one day go by. Just because you are anxious at this hour doesn’t mean my schedule is free to help with that anxiety, even if I’d like to do so.
On labeling email “Time Sensitive”
Sometimes you need to send email you hope to get answered in a hurry (e.g. you need a response in less than two days.) When that is the case, go ahead and label your email with the heading “Time Sensitive,” as in “Time Sensitive: Can’t remember where you said we were meeting today!”
I always open time sensitive mail first, and whenever I can, I respond to it ASAP. To me, time sensitive means “emergency,” so please do not abuse the term. Because you thought of something at 5 am and class is at 9 am, that doesn’t make it time sensitive.
Email and Tone
Finally, as in all writing, tone matters. I have great fondness for my students, and am open to correspondence full of warmth and humor. But remember, at the end of the day, I’m assessing how you will be able to comport yourself beyond this class, and email conduct is part of that deportment. I like students who feel comfortable approaching me, but please don’t send email with headings that say, “hey” or “yo” (or with headings that are blank, as if we are buddies and I’ll automatically know what you want.) I like students who are relaxed, but please don’t send me messages that are written in text-speak, or are impossible for me to parse grammatically, because in the time it takes me to decipher what you’ve written, I could have been answering your questions, and that sort of thing makes me cranky.
I want to say a bit about how we communicate through email. The watchword here is “professional.” Assume yours is one of about two hundred pieces of mail I receive each day (no exaggeration.) Assume I am personally communicating with more than one hundred students this semester in three different classes (I am.) Assume I teach more than one section of this particular class (I do.) Assume want to hear from you, but I also want you to re-introduce yourself and give me some context for your mail.
Etiquette for Question-Related Email
All email containing questions should include a clear message line, a quick explanation of who you are and what class you in, and the question you want to pose. Here’s a nice example of great question-related email etiquette:
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Blackboard Troubles
Hi Terri,
This is Nancy Silver from 9:30 CF3. I’m having trouble retrieving the document from Blackboard called “White Walls and the Sublime.” I see the title, but when I click, it doesn’t download anything. Is this a problem on my end, or is the document not there?i
Etiquette For Submitting Writing Drafts via Email
All email containing writing drafts for meetings should include a clear message line, a quick explanation of who you are and what class you are in, and what documents you’ve attached to the email. Here is an example of great email etiquette re. drafts:
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Draft material for our meeting on Wed. at 3:30
Hi Terri,
This is Nancy Silver from 9:30 CF3. I’ve attached two documents to this email.Doc. 1 has the writing I’d like us to go over for our meeting on Wednesday at 3:30. Doc 2 has the questions and concerns I have about what I’ve written. Looking forward to getting your feedback.
Thanks,
Nancy
Regarding email and timing:
Certainly, you must check your Slack and NYU email account once a day, the same way you’d be expected to do at any job. I check my accounts far more than that, but on days where I am teaching and holding blocks of office hours, I can go hours without checking or responding to email. My thinking is always that live bodies in front of me take priority over virtual bodies in my email inbox.
What it means to get an “MR” Email From Me
Almost every class, a student comes up to me and asks the question, “Did you get my email?” To nip this in the bud, I’m going to institute a new policy. Whenever I get a message of mail from you, I will respond with the initials “MR” (stands for message received) to let you know that I got what you sent. Sometimes I am rushing around and need a minute to answer the question you’ve asked. The quick “MR” mail is meant to let you know I’m on the case.
Writing “Second Request” Emails
If you sent email and didn’t get an “MR” response within a day’s time, feel free to drop me another piece of mail. If you got an “MR” response from me but haven’t heard anything else for two days, you can also send a second email. Mark anything you’ve send twice with the header “Second Request,” as in “Second Request: Web site access Problems over here.”
I never take offense at mail marked “second request,” because sometimes things fall through the cracks, and I would much prefer you to re-send a request than assume I don’t care about you or your needs. If you label that email “Second Request” it will shoot to the tip of my list of things to deal with. That said, do not send mail marked “second request” without letting at least one day go by. Just because you are anxious at this hour doesn’t mean my schedule is free to help with that anxiety, even if I’d like to do so.
On labeling email “Time Sensitive”
Sometimes you need to send email you hope to get answered in a hurry (e.g. you need a response in less than two days.) When that is the case, go ahead and label your email with the heading “Time Sensitive,” as in “Time Sensitive: Can’t remember where you said we were meeting today!”
I always open time sensitive mail first, and whenever I can, I respond to it ASAP. To me, time sensitive means “emergency,” so please do not abuse the term. Because you thought of something at 5 am and class is at 9 am, that doesn’t make it time sensitive.
Email and Tone
Finally, as in all writing, tone matters. I have great fondness for my students, and am open to correspondence full of warmth and humor. But remember, at the end of the day, I’m assessing how you will be able to comport yourself beyond this class, and email conduct is part of that deportment. I like students who feel comfortable approaching me, but please don’t send email with headings that say, “hey” or “yo” (or with headings that are blank, as if we are buddies and I’ll automatically know what you want.) I like students who are relaxed, but please don’t send me messages that are written in text-speak, or are impossible for me to parse grammatically, because in the time it takes me to decipher what you’ve written, I could have been answering your questions, and that sort of thing makes me cranky.