Jimmy Fallon makes me laugh. I tune in to watch “The Tonight Show” when I can and my favorite segment is his weekly “Thank you Notes.” Fallon expresses gratitude in his quirky way by waving his pen in the air and pretending to scroll on card stock. I laugh out loud when he quips, “Thank you take-out restaurants who put two spoons and two forks in the bag for being nice enough to assume this food I ordered is for two people.” Or, “Thank you lobsters for being the only crustacean that can wear a top hat and you’re like, ‘Makes sense.'” And one of my favorites, “Thank you, the Firefox logo, for looking like an upside down Ed Sheeran face.” Fallon shares a funny take on Emily Post’s good manners. He is using a pen, not his phone or an e-mail to model the art of writing old-fashioned thank you notes. It is a courteous way of extending care. I ask our daughters to write thank you notes for a variety of things including presents, interviews and events. I also enjoy sending thank you notes. To acknowledge someone’s efforts is incredibly important and spotlights the importance of relationships.
My online students write me thank you notes most often in electronic form, but also have sent me handwritten letters. I save all of their eloquent thank you’s in a file folder every semester. Here are a few samples that make me smile:
- Thank you for a great semester!
- You made a difference in my life. Enjoy the rest of the year.
- I can’t wait to get outside this weekend and I’ll be thinking, no more assignments to post. Just kidding. I am actually going to miss your e-mails. Thank you!
- I wasn’t able to get it revised by you because I was still finishing up yesterday. I know you understand that I put as much effort as I could. Thank you for great semester!
- Thank you for helping me throughout this course. You edited so fast and got back to me. I couldn’t believe it. You are a grading rock star.
- Eight weeks flew by. Thanks for a fast and painless English course.
- Thank you with helping me with compatibility checks, comma splices and colons.
- Thank you for your patience. Sometimes I can be a pain (that’s what my Dad says).
- Thank you for pushing me to use real words. I can get kinda stuck on “thing.”
- Thank you for all of the comments you made on my essays because we made it okay.
- Thank you for reading all of my separate e-mails. Sorry I forgot to include my name.
- Thank you for your feedback on the draft. I believe I got the in text citations correct for this being an interview type source. And when I didn’t, I know you would confirm the correct way.
- You get back to me pretty promptly. When do you sleep? Thank you for being there.
- Thank you for attaching the rubric. Although I’m mindful of my grade, it is equally important that I master the concepts you’re teaching in this course. I really appreciate you offering feedback via phone or in person. I can’t thank you enough for your timely responses to my e-mails.
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