5 Advice for Students: How to Communicate to Professors

Communicating with professors can be one of the terrifying things a student can ever encounter during their academic exploits. There are many propagators of this fear, but among them is the failure of knowing how to talk to them. In regard to this, this article will take a dive into the mannerisms of the best way that you can communicate with your professors.

1. Keep in Mind Their Communication Preferences

Most of the professors, if not all of them, indicate on the syllabus or even in class their preferences for the way in which students should get in touch with them. One of the safest bets is trying to initiate a conversation during their office hours especially if what you want to discuss with your professor could take a long time. It is also common to find professors being happy with communication via email although it’s better to communicate face to face. Whatever the case, the bottom line is that you communicate using the means that your professors have defined as being most suitable for them.

2. Always Use Proper Grammar and Etiquette

Many students are normally polite during office hours or when talking face to face with their professors. However, this changes when it gets to communication through other means such as email. This is something that you should make sure you avoid because you can get to your professor’s good books by merely being polite and courteous in the way you write to them.

3. Never Flirt With Your Professors

You should be wise enough to veer off any temptations of flirting with your professors when communicating with them. This is because, in these present times, even something as simple as favouring a particular student could ruin the professor’s tutoring career. Taking such an approach when communicating with your professors could be tantamount to him/her putting up barriers to prevent you from ever getting in touch with him/her ever again, which could be detrimental to your academics.

4. Always Be Concise

It is of essence that you take into consideration the tight schedules that your professors tend to have. Approaching them and going straight into the details of what you would like from them is the best path to take in this context. Refrain from unnecessary details that will end up adding to the mental exhaustion that they are likely to have accumulated throughout the day.

5. Always Tell Your Professors The Truth

In a professor’s lecturing career, he/she is likely to have heard almost every lie that students have ever come up with. This makes them have an uncanny ability to fish out lies that they have heard before, or a line of logic that’s involved in the process of cooking up a lie. This means that whenever you’re going to a professor to talk or even request for something from them, it is best to stick to the truth. There is no point in coming up with tales regarding the reasons you were not able to sit for an exam or submit an assignment in good time. Instead, just confess the real issue that could have barred you and go straight to making your request. Majority of professors will hold you in high esteem for your honesty.

Conclusion

As much as professors are held in high esteem by students, it should never be interpreted that they cannot be talked to in forums that are outside the classroom. Professors are similar to any other human beings so you don’t have to fear them. If done in the right manner, it is not difficult to communicate with them with a good outcome being born out of your interaction.

Author's Note

Richard Nolan is a professional educator and team building coach, sharing his experience in spheres of writing, blogging, entrepreneurship, and psychology. Richard writes for numerous blogs and gives useful tips for bloggers and students. Currently, Richard works as a general blog editor. Visit the blog of http://essaywritersite.com/ to see some of his latest works.