Blurb:

This chapter explores students’ e-mail expressions of gratitude, highlighting them as a perhaps surprisingly complex task for students. Students’ e-mail thank yous are categorized according to their respective topic (e.g., teacher providing help, sending homework assignment, writing a letter of recommendation, etc.). The report includes an analysis of students’ actual thanking expressions including an emphasis on each thanking category (Cheng, 2010) and frequency of expression. A more general e-mail characteristic is also analyzed in this chapter: students’ self-identification. This chapter closes with specific pedagogical implications and areas of future research related to expressions of gratitude.