I’m just writing to apologize or give a reason for why I missed class/was late to class…

Different professors (and different bosses and supervisors!) have different standards for absence and lateness etiquette:

VERSION A. Some prefer that all students (employees?) check in with them by email after no-showing or being late, to put a human face on things and make clear that we all understand that a person’s real presence is important. Even then, the email should be succinct and courteous, and above all mature in its tone (rather than dripping with made-to-order contrition!).

VERSION B. Some find such check-ins kind of, well, oversharey. You were either there or you weren’t, and if the reason for your absence has no bearing on your work or my evaluation of you (as in my classes), there’s no need to tell the details.

I’m a version B kind of guy. Think about it: a chunk of my students miss class, for whatever reason, every week. In the age of email, that’s a message from each of them — it becomes spam.

More importantly, my absence policy is my show of respect for you as an adult — because I don’t think it is ethical to create any expectation that a student should have to share the details of her or his life outside class. I find it barbaric and infantilizing to, in any way, compel or pressure students to reveal their personal life or medical status to professors. It’s none of my business why you missed class or were late. I don’t judge you personally — your reasons are your own, and I respect that!

If you still want to talk, person to person, about why you missed class, then email is the wrong format. (Perhaps the reason you missed class amounts to a hilarious anecdote!) Approach me — person to person — with the understanding that nothing you say to me about an absence or lateness will affect my personal opinion of you, nor will it affect your mark. (Click here for more about the relationship between your classwork and my personal opinion of you.)

If you are writing to insist that I should remove an absence from the record for your mark, then given my absence policy, emailing me is not the way to do it