Writing a Good Help Request

Writing a good message to the Help Desk or Educational Technology can be the difference between a quick fix to the problem, or an endless exchange of increasingly frustrated emails (and, perhaps, endless frustration). Use the tips below when you're emailing to request help.

Use a descriptive subject line

If you've ever read an article on "how to write a good email", the same advice applies here. A good subject line helps the person responding triage their email, and redirect it quickly to the right place. At a minimum, try to include:

  • What system or page is misbehaving
  • What type of error message or other problem is occurring

Good: Canvas Quiz not visible to students

Bad: Canvas is broken, please help!

Good: Canvas error "Not Authorized" looking at a file

Bad: Canvas hates me

Clearly describe where to look

Give us specific information about the course and, if applicable, the specific activity or content. The Help Desk staff may be looking at 10-20 courses in an hour long shift, and likely doesn't know how you've arranged your course. The item number is probably the single most helpful starting point you can give us.

Good: In my ENGL 123 course, item 1234, Module called "Writing a Topic Sentence", Quiz 2A - Find the topic"

Bad: This week's handout in my 10am writing class.

Describe what's going on

Once you've explained where, go into detail of what's going on. The best messages cover the following:

  • What steps were you doing when the problem happened?
  • What happened? And if there was an error message, what did it say?
  • What did you expect to happen?
  • What have you tried so far?
  • Where were you when it happened... and on what computer?

Good: I was on my Mac laptop at home, when I tried to edit the quiz. The page came up looking strange -- everything was in a funny order, and there were no buttons to click. I tried reloading the quiz and I tried Firefox instead of Safari, but it's still happening. Everything else looks okay, just this one quiz.

Bad: The quiz looks funny when I click on it. 

Screenshots are awesome

Screenshots can go a long way to explain what happened. Some examples of screenshots you might want to include, if appropriate to the issue:

  • The error message you receive
  • The settings page where you're trying to set something
  • The screen that's not showing correct information

Since you've made it this far in this course, you've already learned how to do screenshots to complete assignments. Use the same methods to attach a screenshot to email the Help Desk.

Including a screenshot in an emailed request for help:

Including a screenshot when using the Help link in the Global Navigation Menu on the left:

  • Option 1: Put the screenshots in Dropbox, Google Drive, or other web site that allows you to share the files. Add that link address into the message in Canvas.
  • Option 2: Submit the request without the screenshot. Then, open your email. You will receive a message about your ticket. Reply to that message, and attach the screenshot to that email.