In
her radio presentation “Email Etiquette,” on the BBC4 program A Point of View, historian Lisa Jardine
examines a few specific cases in which the differences, in principle slim,
between letter writing and the current state of email etiquette saved (or caused)
grief in the correspondences of Virginia Woolf. While I agree that many times
hastily written emails can do an incredible amount of damage, the only true
differences between an email and a written letter are the mindset we bring to
them and the way they are sent and delivered.
The
first example Jardine gives is a case in which great insult and the loss of a
friend was avoided because of the fundamental difference between emails and
letters. Jardine says that Woolf, “reading over what she had written…thought
better of her stern tone and did not send the letter,” and, in fact, according
to various authors in trade publications, this is the most important step in
writing an email, especially if you feel that it could easily be misinterpreted
in any way (“Email Etiquette”) . As Neil Hymans says, “Most importantly, think
twice before clicking the "Send" button!” (Hyman 1). Or, from Rita
Mikusch, “If [your email] contains emotion and/or deals with sensitive matters,
then hold on to it for a few hours…to see if you still want to send it”
(Mikusch 1). This advice holds true for both email and traditional letters;
however, with email, especially in the case of anger or other strong emotions,
it is possible in the moment to send something you’ll regret later – on the
other hand, with a letter, the sealing of the letter and walk to the mailbox,
though still a short amount of time, is likely to be enough to allow you to
cool off and rethink what you wrote.
In
addition to email and post being fundamentally different, there is also a
purely mental difference between them, one that may not always be as obvious
depending on the recipient and the originator, and their relationship. Many
times, an initial email to some faceless entity (the IRS being a great example)
will be lacking in the formalities generally observed in a written letter,
because even though intellectually the author knows that at some point the
email will be read by a human, it still feels as though they are writing to an
organization. Even Jardine, who everyone writing to her presumably knows is a
real person, says “many [initial emails] adopt a curiously curt tone,” without
“the courtesies enshrined in traditional letter-writing” (“Email Etiquette”). However,
if there is a response to Jardine’s reply, “it is as if between the first and
the second response [she] ha[s] become a person” (“Email Etiquette”). Since the
writer received a reply with a real human voice and personality made obvious
through that reply, they now have a baseline to communicate as two people and
not just a person talking to an emotionless entity.
The
moral of this, I suppose, is, as Jardine says, “to heed Woolf's warning, never
to write carelessly,” and to keep in mind always that there is another person
on the end of the Send button (“Email Etiquette”). With these two rules, the
minutiae of email etiquette fall into place, from using clear and precise
language to ensuring your attachments don’t overload the recipient’s connection
to “draft[ing] email messages with [more than] the literary discipline we would
apply to a Post-It Note” (Hymans 1). When all else fails, pretend that instead
of writing an email, you’re composing a letter to be printed out, and you’ll be
closer than most to proper email etiquette.
Works
Cited
Hymans,
Neil. "Email Etiquette." Intheblack 71.9 (2001):
44-. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
Jardine, Lisa. "Email
Etiquette." A Point of View. Prod.
Sheila Cook. BBC. BBC4, 3 Feb. 2012. Radio.
Mikusch,
Rita. "Mind Your Email Etiquette." Beyond Numbers.417
(2002): 24-. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
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