Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

Staci Defibaugh

Committee Member

Michelle Fowler-Amato

Committee Member

Kevin Moberly

Committee Member

Richard Besel

Abstract

Ineffective email communication has been a topic of debate, it seems, for as long as email has been a mainstream communication tool. This study, situated in linguistics, is one more part of that conversation and aims to address how instructors and students are using email in academic settings, what genre conventions they employ, and what expectations of and attitudes towards email and email users influence email communication. Discourse analysis and thematic analysis were used to identify emergent patterns in the data from 20 authentic emails and six student/faculty focus groups. This study draws from Pokharel’s theory of trans-situational networked ecology (2021) and Lave & Wenger’s community of practice (1991) to frame the data and discussion. Findings indicate agency, interpersonal relationships, experiences, genre convention use, face-saving techniques, behavioral expectations, and likeability can influence email communication far more than email content. This study’s implications can 1) help users communicate better, 2) reflect on how their experiences, perceptions, and assumptions can influence their email communications, 3) reach beyond higher education settings to increase email effectiveness in other disciplines and advance language-centric fields.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/3qct-jd94

ISBN

9798193216292

ORCID

0009-0000-8028-0871

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