Email Attachment File Guidelines
for students and faculty
How to submit attached files via email
To avoid confusion, we at CES ask that our students always (ALWAYS) add their name as part of the title of any attached file that they email to us.
In any given day, CES receives many emails and many of them are from students submitting files though email attachment.
When these files are downloaded, they can be confused with other attached files that arrive from other students.
For example, if Bob, Ted, and Mary all send in their Learning Contract for submission at the same time, we might have three files downloaded into our system that are titled simply LearningContract.doc. Which is which? Whose is whose?
And, this is the same with term papers. The title TermPaper.doc is not very helpful.
So, here are the attachment file guidelines . . .
1. First, and foremost, your name (or more likely an abbreviated form thereof) should be part of the title of your attached file.
2. Next, if the document you are submitting as an attached file is to undergo multiple drafts and submissions, then each time you submit the same document for review, you should chronologically number it to represent each successive submission.
What This Looks Like:
BobJonesLC1.doc < note that the students name is short and clear, along with what the document is, i.e., LC (short for Learning Contract), and then there is the number 1 showing that this is Bobs first submission of his LC. When the mentor or CES office reviews Bobs LC and sends it back to him with corrections, Bob is then to make the necessary corrections and resubmit it. This second submission will have the name of BobJonesLC2.doc (note the 2) and so on as many times as is necessary for each new revised submission, e.g., BobJonesLC3.doc, BobJonesLC4.doc, BobJonesLC5.doc, and so on.
3. Next, abbreviate it. Make your titles short as possible, but still understandable. For example, do not write LearningContract.doc when the shorter version LC.doc will do. TermPaper.doc can be TrmPapr.doc. However, TP.doc is too short and thus ambiguous. It could mean Team Player for all we know.
4. Do not abbreviate so much that the title becomes cryptic. One student abbreviated the first draft of her thesis like this: TRT.doc. How were we to know that this was Tammy Russell's first submission of her thesis? She should have written something like: TamRuselThsis.1.doc.
5. Do not use underscores. One student wrote: AxelanderBarton_syldrft#1forTH-500.doc. As you can see, this was an attached syllabus. Let's go through this point for point:
(1) Do not write "AxelanderBarton" when "ABarton" will work.
(2) Do not under_score.
(3) Never hand in what you think is a "draft." In other words, you should always present your best work. You can number it as "1" showing that it is your first submission, but if you use the word "draft" or some abbreviation thereof, you are signifying that you don't even think it's done! If you don't think it's polished and done, how do you expect the CES faculty or CES office to accept it? It is up to your faculty member or the CES office to determine if it needs more work. So, do not submit drafts of your work unless specifically requested to do so. Without such explicit request, all of your work should be your best, final product.
(4) The "drft1for" is all unnecessary. All we need is "syl." Actually, we know what the course numbers look like, so the abbreviation "syl" or "sylb" is also likely unnecessary.
So, from this:
AxelanderBarton_syldrft1forTH-500.doc
to this
ABartonTH500.1.doc
This means, AxelanderBarton, Syllabus for TH-500, first submission
DISSERTATION OR THESIS SUBMISSIONS
DissertationDraft.doc can be abbreviated to simply Diss1.doc, Diss2.doc, and so on. But remember the student must also include his/her name. And, if a student has a very long name, that too should be abbreviated. So, instead of ChristopherMacDunnery.DissertationDraft#1.doc, it should be ChrisMcDun.Diss1.doc.
One doctoral dissertation proposal underwent eight drafts before it was finally accepted. The full title was Doctoral Dissertation Proposal for Randy Wilkerson. His first submission of the document was titled:
RandyWilkerson_DoctoralDissertationProposal_SubmissionNumber1.doc
The school had Mr. Wilkerson abbreviate it to: RndyWlkrsnDissProp1.doc
With each successive submission, he changed the number to fit the chronology:
RndyWlkrsnDissProp2.doc
RndyWlkrsnDissProp3.doc
RndyWlkrsnDissProp4.doc
RndyWlkrsnDissProp5.doc
RndyWlkrsnDissProp6.doc
RndyWlkrsnDissProp7.doc
RndyWlkrsnDissProp8.doc
One thing to remember when making your abbreviations is that often, a word (or a name) can be shortened but still discernible by simply removing the vowels (or some of them).
RndyWlkrsn = Randy Wilkerson
TrmPapr = Term Paper
Thnk you, & hve a grt day!
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