When I receive a polite e-mail, I expect to see most (and probably all) of the following:

1. a subject line showing it’s a student message (and thus not spam!)

ü Request from Taro Suzuki

ü Office visit (from Miho Tanaka)

ü English class homework from Chikako Yamamoto

2. a polite salutation (careful of punctuation and spelling, please)

ü Dear Mr. Elwood,

ü Not Dear Mr. doowlej, (that’s my e-mail address, not my name!)

ü Not Dear Elwood, (that’s very, very rude!)

3. an introduction (who is sending me this e-mail?)

ü My name is Taro Suzuki, and I’m in your 1^st period writing class on Friday.

ü My name is Miho Tanaka, and I’m a student in the Physical Education Department at Tsukuba University.

ü My name is Chikako Yamamoto, and I’m a graduate student here at Tsukuba University.

4. a concise explanation of the sender’s purpose

ü As you mentioned in class, for my final project I need to visit your office and speak with you.

ü I have a question about my homework.

ü I would like to consult with an American about…

ü I’m writing a paper on genetics and I have several questions about English terms.

ü I’m sending my homework as an attachment

ü I’m sorry I was absent from today’s class. I had a cold and could not attend any of my classes.

5. your polite request, question, etc. (notice the “May I…?” form)

ü May I visit your office next Friday, February 18^th, at 2:30?

ü May I ask you to look over my paper for grammatical mistakes, please?

ü May I send you some questions about genetics terms in English?

ü May I take a few minutes of your time sometime next week?

ü May I ask you to check my homework, please?

ü I want you to check my paper.

6. a “thank you” for using some of my time.

ü Thank you for your time.

7. a polite closing & your name

ü Sincerely,

Taro Suzuki

For example, your message should look something like the message on page 2:

Here is this page as a Word document.