Genre Fluency Entry #2- E-mail

E-Mail

 

Influence:

The creation of E-mail has brought an entirely new genre of writing, complete with exclusive lingo. This speedy way of exchanging information has changed the way that people communicate, both in business and in personal, day-to-day experience. E-mail has had a few significant effects:

  • Replacing the written letter- the onset of e-mail caused a dramatic decline in the amount of postal correspondence that circulates through the mail system daily. The convenience of e-mail has caused many would-be letter writers to sit down at their computer and type out their letter instead. Most people that have access to e-mail are able to type faster than they are able to hand-write, and because of the convenience of e-mail, the written letter has been reduced greatly.
  • Mass Communication- e-mail allows for mass communication with great ease. Large businesses can send out announcements to all of their members/clients/readers. Families can send out holiday newsletters to all of their family friends. Groups of friends can send out e-mails to all of their other friends to plan get-togethers.
    • E-mail keeps people in touch around the country. People can e-mail other people over city lines, state lines, or overseas, whether they be friends, co-workers, bosses, employees, potential clients, or family. Distance is no longer a detriment to communication.
  • Speed- The speed of e-mail is perhaps its strongest draw. No one wants to wait for a letter to arrive in the mail or pay extra to get it sent “priority” or “first class”. With e-mail, important information can be conveyed on the spot.


    • Features

    Overall, most e-mail is set up in a simple, user-friendly fashion so that even the most technologically-challenged people can use it. It is arranged so that the user can just open up a new e-mail, type their message, and hit send.
    The text of an e-mail can vary according to what message the writer wants to get across. E-mail text in general is very brief and to the point. Standard letter format, with a greeting, a body, and a closing is common, but the tone that the writer uses will vary based on who they are writing to. Business e-mail tends to be formal. Business communication tends to pay more attention to proper capitalization and punctuation, while casual e-mail frequently lets these slide. Below is an example of an e-mail that might be exchanged in business communication.

    Here is an example of the tone of casual e-mail.

    Different e-mail services provide different features, but there are some features that are almost universal.
    CC- Typing multiple addresses in the CC box, which stands for Carbon Copy, allows the sender to send the same e-mail to more than one person. BCC, or Blind Carbon Copy, hides the names of the other recipients from the original recipient. Carbon Copies are useful for large group correspondence.
    Reply All- Another common feature of e-mail is the Reply and Reply All button, where the recipient of the e-mail can choose to reply to the person that sent the original e-mail without having to re-type the address(es).
    Mail Organization- most e-mail services have some sort of mail organizational system, where you can save e-mails in different folders, keep them as new, mark them urgent to respond, etc.

    My Experience

    E-mail was the first internet activity that I became involved in, and since it became very popular very quickly, I have used it as my primary source of written communication. I currently use e-mail every day for work, corresponding with members of the Grand Rapids Economic club who need to register for meetings. I also use it for e-mailing my friends, corresponding with teachers and fellow students and sending out my resume.

    Advice


    When e-mailing, it is important to remember the significance of the communication. Although it is an informal method, certain standards still apply.
    When writing business correspondence, it is important not to use shortened lingo that has become popular among many e-mail writers, such as “lol” (laugh out loud) or “btw” (by the way) or “g2g” (got to go). Not only are such abbreviations unprofessional, they can also be confusing to the reader.
    When writing any correspondence, it is important to make sure to spell-check. It is easy to make typing mistakes when writing e-mail.
    Be very careful when you are typing the e-mail address of the recipient. Many e-mail addresses have dots, dashes, abbreviated words, and unfamiliar names. Hitting just one key wrong can prevent your e-mail from getting to the intended recipient.
    Sometimes, when responding to something specific from an e-mail, it is helpful to copy what the person wrote to you, so both parties know what your e-mail is in reference to. You can do this by highlighting the desired section before clicking “Reply”.