Johan Lindén

How to write an email message

Advice to my students on how to contact me by email

If you are a student of mine and plan to write me an email message, please note the following advice. To many students this kind of instructions may seem unnecessary, but I receive surprisingly many messages which would have benefitted from following these simple rules.

Here are the main points. Comments and explanations follow below.

  1. Read the course web site before you write.
  2. Write to the right person.
  3. Use your student email account @student.mdh.se
  4. State your name, course name, and course code.
  5. State your errand early in the message.
  6. Mention my name on the first line and your name on the last.
  7. Write correct English or Swedish.

Comments and explanations

1. Read the course web site before you write.

Don't write unnecessarily, for example to ask for information that is already provided on the college web site. Before you write, please check the course web site and particularly read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

2. Write to the right person.

Administrative issues should be addressed to the administration of the EST academy, e-mail: ESTstudent@mdh.se or, in some cases, to a student counselor. Typical examples of administrative questions are those about admittance or registration. If in doubt about whether to write the teacher or the administration, ask yourself Does one need to know economics to answer this question? If you want to contact a teacher, make sure to contact the right one. If there are more than one teacher in the course, contact the head teacher, which is usually the one responsible for the roll call in the beginning of the course. Check the signature in the course schedule.

3. Use your student email account @student.mdh.se

All active students at Mälardalen University has a student email account with an address ending with @student.mdh.se which is the preferred account to use in communication with the college. There are several advantages to using your student email account. It immediately proves to the recipient that the sender is an active student at the college, and makes it possible, though time consuming, to verify who the sender is. An email message sent from one college address to another almost always reaches its destination. If a message has been sent but not received, it is usually possible to trace it and find out what went wrong. My spam filter is set to never classify email from student accounts as spam, which sometimes happens with other email.

4. State your name, course name, and course code.

You should state your full name, i.e. first and last name, the exact name of the course you are taking for me, and its course code. For example, write I was in your course Macroeconomic principles (NAA130) last term. An exception is if you are replying to a message in which this information is already quoted from an earlier message. In some cases, you may also need to state your personal identity number (in Swedish: personnummer), e.g. if I need to verify who you are or send your case to an administrator.

5. State your errand early in the message.

Get to the point early in the message. Follow up with explanations later. This is always a good idea when you write, not only when writing email messages.

6. Mention my name on the first line and your name on the last.

Begin the email message with an introductory greeting and my name on the first line of the message body. End the message with a parting greeting and your name. Use your full name if it's the first time you write and if you didn't state your name earlier in the message, otherwise use the name you would like me to use when i greet you in my reply. Apart from being nice, the greetings fill important functions. The introductory greeting with my name informs me that this is a personal message and no mass email "to whom it may concern". The parting greeting with your name shows who is writing and indicates that you take responsibility for the message contents. Use your own style. If you want suggestions, on the first line you can use "Hello Johan," (in Swedish: "Hej Johan!") and on the last "Regards, Your Name" (in Swedish: "Hälsningar, Ditt Namn").

7. Write correct English or Swedish.

Write complete, grammatically correct sentences. Check your spelling, maybe using a spell-checker.

Contents by Johan Lindén Revised: 2018-01-08