I have a change of plans for today. I am still setting up Project 2, so we’re going to talk about those personal email messages that you will ultimately have to send to a teacher or manager instead. At some point, you are going to have to email your manager that you are sick and won’t be coming in. It’s also likely that you are going to have to let your manager know that something has gone wrong and you’ll miss a key meeting or won’t meet a deadline. You’re also going to need to ask for a day off for personal reasons.

All these emails have a lot in common with the messages that students send teachers, so I’m going to share some examples from my files, talk about how to improve them, and end with a list of what you should include when you send an email to your teacher or manager.

In-Class Writing

We’ll do the writing at the end of the session today (so you can demonstrate you were paying attention). Go to “Tests & Quizzes” in Scholar and complete today’s in-class writing, “02/19 Email Excuse.” Choose one of the four options and write your answer in Scholar. You are not actually sending me an email message. Be sure to indicate which option you have chosen. You have until 5 PM tomorrow, Thursday, 02/20, to turn in your work.

Homework

If you haven’t started reading Markel, Chapter 14, “Writing Definitions, Descriptions, and Instructions,” please do. We’ll go over all the parts of the chapter in class during the next week or so.