Politeness strategies in Filipino student-professor email correspondence in higher education amid pandemic

This study investigated how politeness is used when students and professors communicate through email. Specifically, it (1) identified the communicative purposes of student-professor email correspondence, (2) determined the linguistic politeness strategies in student-professor email correspondence, and (3) examined how linguistic politeness strategies serve teachers’ and professors’ communicative needs. From the analysis of 95 emails between 17 undergraduate students and three professors, several strategies for both positive and negative politeness were observed. Most positive politeness strategies are used by students to provide justification for actions considered unfavorable to the professor as well as to receive favorable responses while professors employ such strategies to provide a sense of inclusivity and empathy. Negative strategies were commonly used in student-initiated emails while professors employ such strategies to avoid the imposing perception. The study also noted the evident use of a hierarchical, linguistic politeness marker regardless of the strategies used in the email and the use of emoticons.