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Tag: email etiquette
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In First Two Months, Rubin Propel Gives Email Etiquette Advice 30,000 Times
In January 2024, we launched our Propel email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook.
Immediately, the tool went to work helping students nationwide become more professional with their messages to teachers and employers.
See how Propel works — 1 minute video!
Quick stats:
Number of school districts participating: 37
Number of students who have Propel as an email extension: 936
Number of emails written with the help of Propel: 5,449
Number of Propel rules shared with the students: 30,019
Let’s break down the data
Propel guides a student to structure an email (ex: include a greeting and closing) and then analyzes the message to offer further suggestions for grammar and soft skills.
Propel offers advice, but students must make the changes. No AI, no ChatGPT. Pure learning.
Among the 30,019 times Propel offered advice:
- Include a greeting (ex: Good morning): 3,357 times
- Add a period at the end of the sentence: 2,415
- Address the person with a proper title (ex: Ms. Smith): 2,351
- Don’t write the email as one “blocky” paragraph: 544
- Be sure to capitalize the first word of a sentence: 460
- Remember to sign your name at the end: 397
- Don’t use a lowercase “i” to describe yourself: 250
What’s more, 99% of students who use Propel write a subject line as a cogent summary of the message. The #1 complaint our team hears from educators about student emails is that students write the entire email in the subject line.
Propel has solved the subject line problem.
“The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much,” said Shelley Roberts, a teacher in Johnston County, North Carolina. “It is disappointing that many students have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. Propel reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students love the easy, ‘fill in the blank’ process.”
The bigger picture
Propel is an optional extension in a student’s email, which means the initial batch of pilot students choose to use Propel. They want the guidance.
“When a student fixes a small mistake like not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, instantly the message becomes more professional,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “The student will then be taken more seriously in the business community, and opportunities can happen more quickly.”
Rubin added: “In that way, Propel is a tool for equity and eliminating bias in the marketplace.”
Click here to request a trial!
Launch and scale.
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Rubin Propel Transforms Email Writing for Johnston County MS and HS Students
Subject line: [blank]
Email message: turned in
That is an email composed by a 9th grader in Johnston County, North Carolina during the spring 2024 semester.
The trend to write emails like text messages is not unique to Johnston County, of course. In our digital era, students nationwide often don’t understand how to draft a professionally-written email.
That’s why Johnston County piloted Rubin’s new Propel email etiquette tool in the spring semester for middle and high school students.
Propel is a teaching tool for Gmail and Outlook that guides a student to compose a high-quality email. Propel does not use AI, and the tool requires students to do all the writing and critical thinking.
See a 1-minute demonstration of Propel here.
Let’s return to the email written by the 9th grader:
Subject line: [blank]
Email message: turned in
With the help of Propel, here’s what the email became:
Subject line: Completed work
Email message:
Good afternoon, Mrs. Roberts.
I hope you are doing well.
I wanted to let you know that I have completed my interview and turned it in.
Thank you,
– Alyssa
Now observe the growth among 6th graders too.
Here’s an example of a 6th grade email before Propel:
Subject line: why i have 72 grade
Email message: [blank]
And here’s an email in which the student used Propel:
Subject line: What I think the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland means
Email message:
Mrs. Woll,
Good morning. This is Evy from second block.
This is my answer for the journal prompt.
I think the rabbit hole represents part of Alice’s personality, such as the unfocused part, or distracted or curious.
Thank you for your time and effort for reading my answer for the journal prompt.
– Evy
Johnston County 9th grade teacher Shelley Roberts:
“The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much! It is disappointing that many of them have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. This tool reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students loved how easy the ‘fill in the blank’ process was.”
Night and day difference.
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Powerful Data: With Propel, Students No Longer Write Entire Email in Subject Line
Raise your hand if you receive emails from students in which the entire message is in the subject line.
…You can put your hands down now.
Propel, Rubin’s revolutionary email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook, eliminates the poor habit and instead teaches students to write compact, professional subject lines.
After six weeks of pilot programs across the country, students have used Propel to assist with emails 4,254 times.
Of the 4,254 emails, only four had a subject line longer than eight words. Four.
That means 99.9% of students who use Propel have learned to use the subject line as a summary and not the full conversation.
Want to see your students stop treating emails like text messages? Install Propel to students’ email accounts.
“We are thrilled with the early data on Propel in the classroom,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “The #1 complaint we hear from educators about communication is that students write the entire message in the subject line. Propel has solved the problem with the initial crop of pilot students, and we hope to roll out the tool to many more schools in the months to come.”
When students compose a new email, they are prompted with a pop-up screen that guides them to write all the part of an email, including a subject line with an example to follow. A subject line is more than a summary of the email. It is a first impression as a student communicates with teachers, employers and the broader community.
A sloppy subject line could prevent the student from receiving a response. A professional subject line allows the student to open new doors and conversations.
Propel, then, is a tool for equity and opportunity that all students deserve.
Problem? Solved.
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You Won’t Believe How These HS Students Write Emails Thanks to Rubin Propel
High school students in teacher Shelley Roberts’s class in North Carolina have undergone a metamorphosis.
An email metamorphosis, if you will.
With the help of Propel, our groundbreaking email teaching tool, the 28 Johnston County students have learned to write high-quality messages instead of ones that resemble a casual text.
To understand the dramatic leap, here is a before & after from one of Roberts’s students.
James (11th grade)
Email before Propel
Subject line: [blank]
Email message: can u pull me for CT
The same email with the help of Propel (the “after”)
Subject line: Comet Time
Email message:
Hello Mrs. Roberts,
I wanted to ask you to pull me for Comet Time A on Thursday, November 8.
I would like to make corrections on my quiz if I am still allowed to do so.
Please let me know if it is a problem,
– James, 1st block
James’s “after” email might seem like it’s written by ChatGPT. But no, he composed the message on his own and wrote every word. Propel guided James to structure the email, use proper capitalization, include periods, remove slang (“u”) and more.
Watch a Propel demonstration to see how the tool works in Gmail and Outlook.
“Our initial pilot was extremely successful and had a positive impact on the email communication
skills of students,” said Johnston County CTE Workforce Development Specialist Kathryn Farrior. “Before and after examples demonstrate a noticeable improvement in student’s email formatting, grammar and overall email etiquette.”Further, ninety percent of Roberts’s students said they would sometimes or always use Propel when writing
emails.Try Propel for free in YOUR classroom. Click here to request access.
Night and day difference
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Students Log 1,000,000 Minutes All Time in Rubin Emerge
Students nationwide have spent 1,000,000 collective minutes in Emerge, our signature online curriculum that teaches in-demand employability topics like email/phone etiquette, networking and conversation skills.
Emerge, which debuted in the 2020-2021 academic year, teaches valuable skills for college and career to students nationwide in grades 6-12 and higher education.
Among the most popular assignments that comprise the 1,000,000 minutes:
- How to learn the difference between texting and emailing
- How to set your own voicemail
- How to sign your name in cursive
- How to take a quality headshot
- How to email your instructor politely about a poor grade
Emerge is a Netflix-style library of assignments, readings, videos and quizzes that integrates for single sign-on to the school’s learning management system (ex: Canvas, Schoology and Google Classroom).
The lessons align with state standards across the country for workplace readiness, a critical set of life skills that prepares students for the world beyond graduation.
In that way, Emerge has become a valued resource for school divisions big and small, from Fairfax County, the largest school system in Virginia, to Payette River Technical Academy in Emmett, Idaho.
“Our goal is to give teachers high-quality resources to use in the classroom so we can’t always observe students using Emerge in real time,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “When we see the number 1,000,000, it’s a powerful reminder that, yes, Emerge shapes students every day into kind, professional young adults — and that’s a mission worth pursuing to reach 2,000,000 and beyond.”
Schedule a free trial of our resources today!
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Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability or work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides three high-quality resources — Aspire, a career exploration video platform, Emerge, a communication skills curriculum and Propel, a real-time email etiquette training tool for Gmail and Outlook.
Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide important lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”
Learning at scale
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Rubin Releases Propel, Innovative Etiquette Tool for Email Writing
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (June 15, 2023) — Rubin, the leader in online resources for business communication skills, has launched Propel, an innovative etiquette tool for email writing.
Propel analyzes a person’s emails and provides instant feedback designed to improve professionalism and soft skills. Unlike popular writing tools like Grammarly, Propel looks for etiquette and professionalism fixes instead of grammar, spelling and verb tense.
Feedback from Propel includes:
- How to write a short, concise subject line
- How to provide a proper greeting
- How to address the person with a formal title
- And much more
Propel is intended for the classroom and the workplace. Early adopters include public school systems where administrators often lament that students write emails like casual text messages. The tool is available as a Gmail extension and Outlook add-on.
When a person drafts an email, Propel analyzes the text in real-time and provides a blinking “P” icon with etiquette recommendations. Once the person clicks the blinking “P,” the etiquette suggestions appear in the email message area as lightbulbs next to the problematic text. The user opens each lightbulb to find a suggestion as well as a chance to “Learn the Rule” with a deeper explanation.
Propel does not write for the person but rather encourages the person to understand why it’s appropriate to start an email with, for example, “Good morning” or consider addressing the recipient with a title like “Mr” or “Ms.”
In the image, Propel encourages the person to start email with a common greeting like “Good morning.” “At Rubin, we have long heard the complaints from educators and business owners about poor etiquette in emails,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Propel is a direct solution to a widespread problem, and we hope Propel will catch etiquette mistakes before the person presses ‘Send.’”
Watch Propel in action below and request a free trial here!
The game has changed forever.