Why Is Email Different?

Electronic mail, or email for short, has dramatically changed how we communicate with other people today.

Because of the speed of email and its ability to broadcast (copy to multiple people at one time), it is a dramatically different medium from its paper-based communications counterpart. That fact that its turnaround time can be so fast, email has become more conversational than traditional paper communications.

Ambiquity in email.

When using a paper document, it is absolutely essential to make everything completely clear and unambiguous, especially when you consider that the audience may not have a chance to ask for clarification. Remember that email documents let the person you have written to read your comments and immediately respond with further questions or comments. Thus, email tends to be much sloppier and more ambiguous then writing a letter.

Although this sounds disastrous, it is actually a very positive process. For instance, you may send a request for information to someone and once they receive your email, they realize that they need more information from you before they can send the requested information to you. So ... they immediately email a message back to you for clarification and the next time you check your mail you will see the message and hopefully respond. All of this can take anywhere from minutes to days depending upon how often you receive and read your email.

The key is attention to details.

When writing messages, you should remember that they will normally be received within seconds of being sent. Knowing this, you should pay attention to how and what you write. For instance, if you are responding to a message that upset you, consider calming yourself before responding. On the other hand, if you are sending a message to your boss, try to be succinct and accurate.

Remember, the amount of effort that you place in your email message should be appropriate for the type of message being written. For instance, it is probably not a worthwhile expenditure of energy to slave over a message, making sure that the spelling is faultless, words eloquent, and grammar beyond reproach, if the point of the message is to inform the recipient that you are ready to go to lunch.

Granted, you should put some effort into keeping your subjects agreeing with your verbs, spelling correctly, avoid mixing metaphors, and so on. But if "The Rules " that you have learned from you grammar teachers get in the way of effective communication, throw them out.

Lacking expression.

Since email can not relate gestures, vocal inflections, and shared environment, it is not as rich a communication method as a face-to-face or telephone conversations. The person you are corresponding with may have difficulty telling if you are serious or kidding, happy or sad, frustrated or euphoric. (Sarcasm is particularly dangerous to use in email.)

Therefore email compositions must be different from both speech and paper compositions.

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