E-mail

E-mail Fields

Every email has fields to ensure it reaches the right people with the right context.

  • To: The primary recipient(s) of your message. Your email should always go to someone, even if you use CC or BCC.
  • Subject: A brief, relevant heading that accurately describes your message’s contents. This is crucial for recipients to quickly understand your email’s purpose.

Optional Fields:

  • CC (Carbon Copy): To send a copy of the email to others, where all recipients can see who received the email.
  • BCC (Blind Carbon Copy): To send a copy to others without the recipients in the To or Cc fields knowing they received it. This is useful for privacy or when emailing a large group.

Organize Your Inbox with Gmail Labels & Filters

Gmail’s Labels and Filters help you sort and organize similar messages automatically.

Setting up a Label:

  1. In the upper right, click the Gear icon (Settings).
  2. Select Settings from the dropdown.
  3. Click the Labels tab.
  4. Click “Create new label.”
  5. Input a name (e.g., “Your Course Name” or “Club Name”). Check the box to create a sub-label if needed.
  6. Click “Create.”

Creating a Filter to Auto-Sort Emails:

  1. From Settings, click the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
  2. Click “Create a new filter.”
  3. Input parameters (e.g., sender’s email address, subject keywords, or a specific recipient like your course mailing list).
  4. Click “Create filter with this search.”
  5. Select desired actions:
    • “Skip the Inbox (Archive it)”: This moves the email out of your main inbox immediately.
    • “Apply the label:”: Categorizes the email under your chosen label.
  6. Click “Create filter.”

Using Different E-mails

Most students benefit from having separate email addresses for different parts of their lives. You should use your University email only for University communications and email from professors, and use your personal account for subscribing to forums, online newsletters, Facebook, etc. You may have multiple email addresses for a variety of reasons, but for academic communication, use your University email.

  • University Email (e.g., UnityID@ncsu.edu):
    • For academic and professional communication, including messages from professors, advisors, classmates, campus offices, and potential employers.
    • Your campus preferred email address will be set by the University and cannot be changed.
    • Avoid mixing it with personal services (e.g., forums, newsletters).
    • Your professors receive this email address as part of your enrollment in their course. Also, professionals and prospective employers will be more likely to contact you at unityid@ncsu.edu than at an address like mydarling@gmail.com.
  • Personal Email:
    • Use a separate address for signing up for newsletters, online services, shopping sites, and social media. This protects your university inbox from spam and distractions, and gives you more control over your online identity.

How to Write Good Emails for Classes

When emailing an instructor or grader, the subject should have the course number, section number, and a brief description of the email contents. For a student asking about Lab 3, the subject could look like E 115 – 301, Lab 3 Problem 2.

We also encourage the use of “Professor” when emailing NCSU faculty (unless you know their preferred method of address) so as not to assume anyone’s gender, marital status, or level of education.

Use meaningful, specific subject headers and email body

  1. When you write us an email, letting us know the specific issue is helpful. You can include in your subject headers something called “object – deviation”. The “object” part specifies what thing is having a problem, and the “deviation” part describes the problem! For example:
    1. NFS Access – Permission Denied
    2. Panopto Video Guided Lab 2 – Cannot access
  2. Describe the environment in which your issue occurs (machine, OS, application). It helps to know if you’re on a Mac or Windows or Linux machine, or trying to use the VCL or a lab computer.

Confidential Mode

You can send email through Gmail’s Confidential Mode. See what “confidential mode” does and does not provide.

Exercises

You can draft these in a document (like in the last exercise) or directly in your email client.

  1. Type out this email with the correct To, CC, and BCC fields: Lab Instructor, I am having an issue with creating a Gmail filer. I am not sure where to locate the “Filter Messages Like These” menu. Can you point me in the right direction? Thank you, Awesome A. Student
  2. Ask for clarification: You are in E 115. You’re working on “Lab: Excel Budgeting,” and you don’t understand section 2’s problems.
    • Draft an email:
      • Recipient: group support for E 115
      • Subject Line: Use the recommended format and “Object – Deviation” method.
      • Body: Ask your question, specifying you are using a Windows 11 laptop.
  3. Use CC and BCC: You need to email your E 115, 301 instructor about a scheduling conflict for an exam. You also want to inform your academic advisor without the instructor knowing your advisor was informed.
    • Draft the email:
      • Fill in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields correctly.
      • Subject Line: Create an appropriate subject.
      • Body: Write a brief message about the conflict and request for a different time, giving times that you are available.
  4. Organize Your Inbox: You receive many emails from perusall@mg.perusall.com about comments on readings when your grades are posted. You want to sort these automatically into a new label called “Course Notifications”
    • Describe how you would:
      • Create the “Course Notifications” label.
      • Create a filter to move emails to the “Course Notifications” label and skip your inbox.
  5. Create a new Google document by typing https://docs.new/ in your URL bar (assuming you are logged in to Gmail on your browser). With an empty document, you should be able to create an e-mail draft (see the screenshot below). Type up an email and save the document. Later, you can send the email through the Gmail web browser client.