Exploring Undergraduate Students' Perceptions and Practices on How to Use Netiquette Rules in Creating Professional Emails

Abstract

In this current study, we explored Saudi undergraduate students' perceptions toward netiquette rules in professional and formal emails through their communication with their professor in spring semester 2020. We investigated how learners formulated their formal emails in an academic domain or for their future careers whether they needed clarification, asked question, or shared issues. To apply this research, we chose critical discourse analysis as a theoretical framework to understand students' perceptions and practices. This qualitative study applied open-ended questions survey, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis (students' emails) with a thick description of their perceptions and practices. We had seven Saudi students from TESOL course. The data was analyzed through vivo coding that went through three different phases and wrote separate memos for every participant to reflect the intended meaning of the data. The results of the study revealed students' understanding of netiquette rules in professional emails. However, students' actual practices under stressful situations showed that they did not always follow the netiquette rules in emails with their professor.