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How to email your maths tutor/lecturer for help

Matt Mack Matt Mack
January 16, 2022
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The image shows a laptop with text on the screen saying "help im bad at math"

Context/Disclaimer: As of writing this post I’m currently a maths “academic teaching specialist” (the US equivalent would be a TA/adjunct) who has worked at 4-5 different universities down here in Victoria, Australia. This post is generally directed towards my current and future students in how best to seek help from me and hopefully a non-negative reaction from my fellow maths educators. However there are some general communication principles one can also take away from this.

Naturally, results will vary. If you’re a student, I’m assuming that your tutor/lecturer is at least a fairly reasonable person (although given this pandemic it’s worth keeping in mind they may be under some duress).

Subject Line

The subject line should include:

  • The subject code or name (depending on what tends to be used/said more).
  • A reference or short description of what you’re asking for help on. If possible, mention the exercise/question or the lecture slide reference.
Why?
In general you should assume lecturers do get a lot of emails. Like, an awful lot of emails. A good subject line makes it easy for them to quickly assess whether they want to respond to it right now or later.

Some lecturers/tutors teach more than one subject (and can be involved in meetings/projects concerning other subjects), so putting the subject code/name helps them with quick contextualisation. Similarly, being specific on which exercise or lecture slide you’re referring to also helps.

Examples

Good Example: MATHXXXXX Exercise Booklet Q12b
Bad Example: help with assignment

Body

  • Include a screenshot of the question (or lecture slide).
  • Include a picture/screenshot of your (ideally readable) working, or some description of what you’ve tried.
  • Aim to be pointed and specific with your questions.
Why?
Including a screenshot of the question or lecture slide saves the lecturer from having to look it up. It also helps them if they’re for example, viewing the email on a mobile device where they cannot so easily pull up the required resources.

Showing working indicates that you’ve at least attempted the question and have thus shown the minimal level of initiative. It also gives your tutor/lecturer something that helps them figure out what may have went wrong. It’s worth pointing out at this point that making an effort to write legible working really does go a long way!

In terms of “I don’t know where to start” questions, for most undergraduate maths subjects (with exceptions for proof-type questions & pure maths subjects) usually the scope is limited enough to ‘just try something and see where it goes’.

Being specific with your question again helps the reader appropriately direct their attention, although sometimes it can be difficult to phrase a question if one hasn’t adjusted to using the language & mathematical terminology – this is fine. The more open-ended a question is, the more likely the response will miss what you’re seeking help for.

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