The weekly column
Article 25, August 2000
Composing Email at the Keyboard
By John Fagan
Overview
In this article, John Fagan introduces some issues surrounding using Email, then offers non-technical ideas for practising writing Email for " explorers " and "navigators " !
What exactly is Electronic mail ? Is it an answerphone message, a mini-report , an electronic telegram, a memo, a new form of communication or a hybrid of existing modes ? Perhaps it is the successor to the fax, a complement to the letter or even a return to the sort of stone tablet Moses would have recognised? Indeed, should we approach Email as a written (as opposed to spoken ) form at all ? It is difficult, perhaps ultimately irrelevant, to seek definitive answers to these questions increasingly asked by teachers and students, on all courses, especially those with a business dimension. What we can say is that Email has revolutionised communications in the field of business and education, whether across the world or across the room or even across the desk !
In this article we shall introduce a few " pointers " to working with Email as a communicative media. We will not here be concerned with the technical side of transmitting Email, which is more specifically the domain of the manuals (1), but a few practical exercises which could be used in a session dedicated to composing the actual Email message.
Novel form
So, whom can we look to for guidance in using Email ? Bill Gates (2), Douglas Coupland or William Gibson (3), Raymond Murphy , James Joyce ? James Joyce - the novelist famous for his free - form " stream of consciousness " passages ! Writing in Liberation Management (4), Tom Peters quotes William Esrey, head of United Telecom (and thus, US Sprint) :
" he touts Email for opening a "dialogue" with employees at all levels, from all over the firm. " [ they ] feel that they are dealing directly with me, " he says, " and speak differently than if the communications were being screened by staffers. " Esrey promulgated a few email "rules." One urges users not to take even a second to go back and fix misspellings or other glitches. " The idea is that you communicate with no fuss ".
The intimate navigators
In the chapter headed " computer-nerd CEOs ", Peters goes on to quote other managers who have become, in a remarkably short time, "Email addicts". There is the partner from the law firm who insists the medium is a means of " letting people converse with him who otherwise might be too intimidated to drop by his office ", and gushing examples from other executives who refer to Email as a "marvellous facilitator", noting "its surprising intimacy" and referring to themselves as " interactive navigators".
Concision before accuracy
Email is therefore immediate - it is direct with no intermediaries, it is instant - composed at virtually stream of consciousness speed, transmitted and responded to often in seconds, and informal - flat as opposed to hierarchical and not standing on ceremony.
The key skill involved in Email composition is therefore summarising. Here are some notes for developing our composition skills in the Email style ;-) First of all format. Using Internet Explorer 4 an Email opens with the standard formula:
Example:
From: John F. Fagan < jff10york@email.msn.com>
To: ELT newsletter
To: CC (copied):
Date: day/month/2000 time
Subject (field): Article: practical Email
>text: " body of text "
> "signature"
First Practice
Give other students your Email address, perhaps initially using the telephone (!) This allows students to become familiar with the domain form:
username, @ = at, host. (dot) gov=government com= commercial, ac=academic uk=United Kingdom
Exchange your favourite Email addresses. Using the telephone means that the space and dot address system must be exactly correct.
Second practice: subject or field headers
Divide the group / pair into project leader and project manager. If each team leader sends up to 10 Emails per day to the project manager, the manager of a 10 person team would need to read 100 Emails daily. "Smart" filter systems have now been developed which alert the manager to read only those Emails considered essential on the basis of the subject or field summary alone.
Ask project leaders to bring in or compose specially 5 Emails they have written. Ask them to write a subject header of no more than four words per Email to ensure their Emails "survive" the filter and are read. Project managers: decide from these headers which Email you would read and in what order.
Afterwards show the full texts of the Emails and decide if the priorities were correct. How could they be improved ? Brainstorm key words which may be dramatic and unambiguous.
Third practice
You can subscribe to your on-line edition favourite business magazine or newspaper by Email. Use a search engine to find the address of your publication (e.g. Economist, FT, Wired, LA Times, ..) Send an Email to subscribe to the edition. Cancel it.
Fourth Practice
Look at a relevant article from your newspaper or magazine. Summarize it in 6 (or 3, or 1) bullet points. Look at the headline to the article. Turn it into a subject header of no more than 4 words.
Fifth practice
Many TEFL related sites have student (or teacher ) connections. A prominent and lively example is Dave's ESL cafι. Address: sperling@eslcafe.com , http://www.eslcafe.com . Send an Email to join one of these sites. You will need to write a one-line biography to attract someone's attention !
Send an Email to European Telework Week at etw-info@eto.org.uk . Say how your organization could take part!
Sixth practice
Try " format-hopping ", using different media for different purposes. For example invite a colleague to a social event by Email / letter / telephone. Compare the responses you get in each format ! Remember you can insert symbols ( or, if sufficiently dextrous with the keyboard, "emoticons")(*) in your Email text but don't use capital letters or PEOPLE WILL THINK YOU ARE SHOUTING and you may get "flamed" : - (
Coda
Many students now enrol on courses by Email. Look at a template of an enrolment form. Fill it in and "send " it. "Bullet point" 4 objectives, then reduce this to one.
Logging off
We have introduced the idea of the Email as a revolutionary form of business communication. It is immediate, instant and informal. Concision is paramount. Although it is a basic technique in this medium to compose quickly, almost as quickly as you consciously think, accuracy is still important. Spelling and grammar errors may possibly be different in magnitude in this form than they are in a formal letter but inaccuracy, as always, can lead to misunderstanding and cause distraction. Moreover it will not add to your "cool" image or reputation as a proper observer of netiquette ! Although we have not defined exactly what Email is it may be worth bearing in mind it originates as written document, then begins its journey on the telephone - the best of all possible cyber-worlds ?
References
1 Clear and helpful manuals include
Witherspoon, C Internet Explorer 4 Fast and Easy.
Rocklin, California: Prima 1997Kennedy, A. J. Rough Guide to the Internet
London: Rough Guides 1999and the so-called " Dummies " Guide series, Email, by Levine, J
2 Gates, W: The Road Ahead (Book and CD ROM). London: Penguin 1995
3 Gibson, W: Virtual Light, London: Penguin 1993; Idoru, London: Penguin 1996 Coupland, D: Microserfs, London: Flamingo 1996
4 Peters, T: Liberation Management, London:
Pan 1992
+ Deeson, E: Dictionary of Information Technology (IT terms), Glasgow:
Harper Collins, first published 1991
Cringely, R: Accidental Empires (historical overview), London: Penguin
/ Channel 4 1996
Cairncross, F: The Death Of Distance, Harvard 1997
* see also www.netlingo.com , www.pop.at/smileys/
John F Fagan is a freelance ESL trainer based in York, UK working mainly with York Associates and York University.
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