With Warmest Regards, Sir, Professor, Professor Sir, I am Very Afraid of Writing this E-Mail

Hi Aska,

So, really this isn’t so much as question that can be answered by your sleuthing, I’m looking more so for advice. I’m just starting my first couple classes of my 3rd year in Summer, full on in Fall. I also obsessive-compulsively plan my courses for the next two years using the degree planner on ROSI. For one of my majors, I need a 4th year seminar that I WAS planning to take in my 4th year (duh), however by checking the timetable, I noticed it’s being taught next year by a prof who I’ve taken twice before and really enjoy/has been really helpful. I’d like to email him and basically ask about the course difficulty in relation to the 3rd year class I took last semester with him, to make sure I wouldn’t be completely lost if I took this 4th year required seminar in my 3rd year.

This is where you’re advice would be useful. I know from talking to him last semester that he is not teaching summer classes. Is it considered bad form to email a professor during the summer break? Would you do it? He’s always been great about returning emails/questions during the school year but I don’t want to bug him if this is considered uncouth.

Thanks! 🙂

~ McRudepants?

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hey there McRudepants,

man, why is e-mailing profs so difficult? i break down every time i try to word an e-mail to a prof. and then they answer back with something like, “sure. – k.” sometimes i wonder why i bother.

i don’t think it’s rude at all. a lot of profs teach summer classes and are doing other work for the university during the summer, and so they check their utoronto e-mail regularly.

obviously, some profs might be away studying some rare form of snail in the amazon all summer, but i don’t think it’s inherently rude to shoot them an e-mail.

also, if you need their (or any other prof’s) e-mail/phone number, you can use the UofT phonebook. it’s a super helpful stalking tool directory for students.

i hope that helps!

cheers,

aska