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I Can't Stand it Anymore  - or

The Evils of Email

category: people, writing

I love email, but I hate what it has done to writing. I love the quick communication, I love the ability to collaborate so easily, I love being able to write rather than talk. Yes, I'm one of those people who usually prefers to write a memo rather than to telephone. For me, writing is often easier than talking. I know the rest of the world does not share my predilections.

I am often scared and usually horrified by much of the email I receive. I don't expect the world to know the difference between a restrictive and a non-restrictive clause. No one cares about these clauses, and that's fine with me. But is it too much to ask email writers to remember that sentences begin with capital letters? How difficult is it to remember to run spell check? Spell check will not cure all ills, but it will take care of lots of them.

I have heard from the apologists who insist that email is more like conversation than like writing and should therefore be exempt from even the most basic rules of writing. I don't agree. In conversation, I don't have to see the sloppy stuff. A speaker might not know how a word is spelled or where a comma belongs, but I don’t have to know about that lack of information. When I read an email, I can't help but see all the problems. They leap off of the screen at me.

Consider the idea that an email might be more like a memo. What would you think of a memo full of misspellings, absent punctuation, and misused words? The writer would lose face. So, when you send email, particularly business email, pretend you are writing a memo.

She said on 08.23.05 @ 05:40 PM CST