A New Title

Dear Student-enrolled-in-one-of-my-fall-courses,

It came as a surprise to me to find your email in my brand new email account (at the rate that these emails are coming, my email account won't be new by the time I actually arrive in Small Town!).

I appreciate that you'd like to know which textbooks I have chosen for this course, so that you'll have time to shop around for a good price (I am more than able to empathize with the student budget).

I appreciate even more that you addressed me as "Professor."

But this created a bit of a problem for me: how should I sign my email in response to you?

I've always signed it off as Scholar-Wannabe. But I don't really want my students to be on a first-name basis with me. That might cause problems for me in the future if the students don't respect my authority.

But I don't really want to sign off as Professor Scholar-Wannabe. That looks too pretentious.

So, I hope you'll understand that I signed off as "SW." I've seen my own profs do it and I now I finally understand why.

Enjoy the rest of your summer,
SW