Writing Guidelines

Assign students to write you an email, reflecting on their learning so far in your class. After the groans, lead them through the guidelines on this page, helping them understand that email writing needs to follow a thoughtful process, just like any other type of writing. Email is the most important form of communication in the workplace, which means that well-written emails can land a job or promotion and badly written emails can lose a job or an opportunity. Email is a form of writing with real consequences, so it should be taken seriously.

Let students know that, though they are writing emails to you, you will be sharing parts of them with the class. Then do so, leading a discussion about effective email. Because email creates a permanent record and can be instantaneously shared with unintended readers, writers need to be very thoughtful in their emails. Recently, politicians and business people have found their emails made public by enemies or congressional investigations. Share this thought:

"For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you'd be a fool if you wrote anything private on one."

—Judith Martin

Sample Blog Post (Cont.)

Finish your read-through of the sample blog post. Then lead a discussion about it. Ask students what details they liked most and why. Ask them how the writing demonstrates the writer's interest in the topic. Then ask them to think about details from their own lives that they would like to explore and share in a blog post.