On E-Mail: Communication Challenges in an Electronic Age

Today, if a manager needs a report from an employee — even if the employee is sitting at a desk a mere five yards away — the manager is likely to request the document via e-mail. This is not unreasonable; after all, the manager doesn't have to interrupt the employee to ask for the report, and the e-mail also serves as a reminder of the task.

In 1990, though, a manager confronted with a similar need might have phoned. An energetic manager might even have walked the full five yards to the employee's desk! A face-to-face conversation would perhaps have sounded something like this:

Manager: Hi, John. How are you?
Employee: Fine, Janet. How are you?
Manager: Great, thanks. You know, I was wondering whether you had a copy of the latest financial analysis.
Employee: Absolutely. Would you like me to bring it over? I just have to find it in my files.
Manager: Yeah, that would be great. Thank you.
Employee: Sure. See you in a minute.

Not exactly high drama, but very informative considering the brevity of the exchange. Besides the words themselves, our hypothetical employee, John, would also have received information through the manager's tone of voice, facial expressions, eye contact, body language, and gestures. He would have been able to make reasonable guesses about whether Janet was in a hurry, in a good mood, pleased with his work, and so on. There would have been a natural ebb and flow to the conversation.

Re-creating this type of communication through e-mail is extremely difficult. In an e-mail message, there are no cues beyond the words themselves (unless you are in the habit of embedding emoticons in your messages, which is a practice we simply can't encourage for professional communications!). Devoid of nonverbal cues, messages can easily come across as rude, or curt, or confusing — despite the good intentions of the sender.

In addition, because many e-mails are short, each word can carry a significant burden. The smallest details — the choice of salutation, for example — often determine whether the intended tone is correctly transmitted to the reader. Writing good e-mail is in some ways almost like the task of a novelist, who deftly arranges a few words to capture a setting, a mood, an aura.

We sometimes encounter professionals who tell us that they really don't write as part of their work. When questioned, though, they often admit to writing many short, conversational e-mails a day. They just don't happen to consider those messages real writing.

We disagree with that perspective. In fact, this type of writing — where e-mail acts as a surrogate for what would historically have been an oral communication — is one of the most significant writing challenges confronting businesspeople today. Quick, courteous communications can boost productivity and enhance relationships with both clients and colleagues; bad e-mail habits cost companies time and money.

Bad e-mail, unfortunately, is bad business.

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