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Tag: email writing
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.
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.
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.
Rubin Holds Contracts with 3 Largest School Systems in VA, NC
Rubin, the leader in online instruction for employability or work readiness skills, holds contracts with the three largest public school systems in Virginia and North Carolina.
Virginia
- Fairfax County Public Schools (Northern Virginia)
- Prince William County Public Schools (Northern Virginia)
- Loudoun County Public Schools (Northern Virginia)
North Carolina
- Wake County Public School System (Raleigh)
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (Charlotte)
- Guilford County Schools (Greensboro)
The six school districts use a mix of Rubin’s Aspire career exploration video platform and Emerge communication skills curriculum. Depending on the district, the resources reach middle school students, high school students or both. The goal in these districts and the 125+ other school systems that use Rubin is to teach students how to write, speak and lead with confidence.
On any given school day, a student in Prince William County or Wake County, for example, may learn life skills from Rubin Aspire or Emerge like how to write a professional email, shake hands, speak on the phone or communicate on a team.
Across all Rubin customers, we deliver Aspire and Emerge via LTI Advantage into the school’s learning management system (LMS) like Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard or Moodle. We also provide a custom single sign-on experience with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams.
In Virginia, North Carolina and states around the country, there is renewed emphasis on employability or “soft” skills. Employers in rural and urban communities routinely ask schools to teach students skills like customer service, face-to-face interactions and email writing.
As school divisions then set out to find partners to provide such curricula, Rubin is there with high-quality instruction that guides students to learn and demonstrate effective communication techniques.
“It’s a great responsibility to work with school divisions, especially ones in our home state of Virginia and next-door neighbor North Carolina,” said Rubin Founder Danny Rubin. “The world of work needs students ready with critical employability skills. We strive to be the premier resource nationwide to help students engage with poise and maturity.”
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 critical lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”
Making an impact on both sides of the border.
HS Student Uses Propel to Write Powerful Email, Stay Eligible for Basketball Season
Rubin Propel, our company’s newest product that teaches young people to write professional emails, has the chance to impact outcomes nationwide.
Not one week into our Early Access initiative where select teachers and students pilot the tool, we already have proof of what Propel can do as a Chrome extension or Outlook add-in.
See brief demonstration of Propel here.
In early November 2023, we provided Propel to teacher Tracy Turney-Smith at Butler Tech, a technical high school in Ohio. A day later, a student of Turney-Smith came into her classroom on the verge of tears.
The young man said an issue over a grade in another class threatened his chances of being eligible for the school’s basketball team. He now needed to write a courteous, professional email to the teacher in question to demonstrate he deserves a second chance.
Turney-Smith knew what to do. She had the student use Propel in Gmail to craft the essential parts of an email (ex: subject line, introductory line) and refine the message (ex: capitalize the first word of each sentence, limit exclamation marks and ALL CAPS).
Thanks to Propel, the student’s email was “fabulous” and “changed the teacher’s mind about the grade” said Turney-Smith.
Now the student is able to rejoin the basketball team this winter. And who knows? Perhaps the student can then seek a scholarship for basketball, attend college, graduate college and embark on a career.
Anything is possible because of the use of Propel on November 2, 2023.
We are excited at the potential of Propel to impact and uplift students everywhere. Request your free pilot of Propel today!
One tool. Endless possibilities.
DePaul University Incorporates Rubin Concepts into Senior Capstone Course
We’re pleased to announce Wait, How Do I Write This Email?, our book of email and writing guides, has made its way into the college classroom.
In a course at DePaul University in Chicago called PRAD 396 Senior Capstone Seminar, instructor Jill Stewart has required every student to read chapter 1 (“How to Write Everything Better”) to understand the fundamentals of clear, concise writing.
PRAD 396 (Public Relations ADvertising), an online course, teaches students the challenges of public relations and advertising through targeted writing exercises, critical reflection on readings and video presentations and participation in discussion boards.
Stewart believes Wait, How Do I Write This Email?, a collection of 100+ templates for networking, the job search and LinkedIn, and supporting online activities are the perfect complement to the PR and advertising lessons in the course. With the book, students learn how to write polished emails/documents, which can improve the job search and how they perform in the workplace.
“I believe the time invested in reading the first chapter of Danny Rubin’s book will make anyone a better writer, and in my case, a better teacher of writing,” said Stewart.
Stewart also encourages DePaul students to buy the book before graduation. Beyond the editing skills in chapter 1, it offers templates for writing scenarios like informational interviews, contacting alumni and creating a strong LinkedIn profile.
“Good writing skills can be the ticket to an internship, a job or a promotion,” said Stewart. “I now make the book required reading for all my capstone classes.”
Thank you to Jill Stewart and DePaul University for being an “early adopter” of the book. We appreciate the support!
Bring Rubin Education to your campus!
Request a 30-day preview of the Rubin Education All Access online curriculum.
Instructor says it’s “required reading.”
Bryant & Stratton College Incorporates Rubin Educaton into Undergrad Course
On November 23, I had the opportunity to bring my new book, Wait, How Do I Write This Email?, to the classroom for the first time.
Thanks to Bryant & Stratton College and Director of Career Services Ronda Toll for inviting me to discuss email scenarios from the book. The school purchased the book for every student in the senior Capstone class.
We talked about:
– How to apply for a job even if the company has no openings at the time (p. 114)
– How to ask for an informational interview as a recent grad (p. 143)
– 4 questions everyone should ask in a job interview (p. 221)To see sample chapters and the entire table of contents, provide your email address over on the right-side column of the blog page. I will send everything to you for free.
As I wrote the book, I envisioned it as a teaching tool in the classroom. So tonight was a cool moment — and hopefully there are more like it to come!
Photos from the night:
The book…ready for action. 
Talking with students at Bryant & Stratton College about the job search, networking and LinkedIn — the central themes of my book, “Wait, How Do I Write This Email?” Learning a thing or two (I hope!) 
Teaching from the book for the first time in a classroom setting. As students prep for graduation, school gives them the ideal resource.