Email Communication Continues To Be Misunderstood
from the flame-this dept
As we have noted here before, emails are very easily misinterpreted, which explains why online flame wars are infamously common. With the emergence of social neuroscience new findings have been published to further explain why emails often result in misunderstandings. Email is at a distinct disadvantage since it lacks the sensory richness of a face-to-face conversation. In a face-to-face conversation, we can judge the tone of the conversation by body language, gestures and tone of voice. So, left with only the words in an email, we are left to interpret the tone of the emails in a vacuum. But, never fear, there are ways to improve email communication. Since studies have shown that misunderstandings occur less between people who are familiar with each other, Professor Clay Shirky recommends to start communication face-to-face and then move on to email. Even saying "Hi" every morning goes a long way to facilitating the social glue. Long touted as the true "killer app" of the Internet, email has definitely improved communications -- that said, it's critical to recognize the differences of this medium and be sensitive to the challenges that it brings.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: communication, email
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
why is it so hard to perceive email like a regular (paper letter) or a fax.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Are you being charged by the letter?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WELL DUH?!?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
10 Rules for better email
1. Never use a subject that gives away what the msg is about.
2. If forwarding an email, leave in all the irrelevant stuff and don't change the subject appropriately.
3. Copy lots of people in and make no distinction between To:(you need to read this) and cc:(for info only, feel free to ignore). let them guess.
4. If answering someone's questions, never quote the question to help them remember what they asked.
5. If distributing a really big file to lots of people, attach it rather than just forwarding a link.
6. Write whole sentences in capitals for emphasis. People love that.
7. Only ever look at what appears in the preview window, and reply to emails based just in what you see in the first paragraph rather than reading to the end first.
8. Reply to questions with other questions rather than trying to give comprehensive answers. This way you can have the maximum possible conversations ongoing at the same time.
9. Never use unambiguous date formats (like "6 Sep 07") when dealing across the atlantic - it spoils the fun.
10. Never take 10 seconds more to explain something more clearly to save the reader 10 minutes of research. Your time is the most valuable there is.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Only idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Only idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
People Don't Say What They Mean
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
New species?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not only idiots
Second, not only idiots make mistakes. Its probably a more recent occurrance where this has really been an issue -- trying to convey tongue-in-cheek humor via text is ... complicated.
Its all about what you say and to whom you say it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
We didn't need "neuroscience" to tell us this
I guess with enough time being ignored by the masses, even old theories sound new again if they're proposed under a new name.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I disagree with Griff on every single point.
I'm glad he never sends me email ;-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
True.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
only idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Communication
Verbal communication does include body language and facial expression however, people often misunderstand verbal communication just as well as written. Talking to someone provides no guarantee that they won't misinterpret what you're saying based on their own insanity or stupidity, than if you wrote them a clear and concise letter. I have found that college graduates in particular tend to interpret what they hear rather than actually listen to what someone is saying. In my experience, a lot of people hear parts of sentences. Phrases. The same appears to be true in written communication. In the end, you can alter what you say and how you say it, or write something in very clear concise terms, but if the idiot reading it has a loose wireless connection with reality (is crazy) or was dropped on their head as a child (stupid), it doesn't matter how you say or write something. They just won't get it. What we can do to help the person we're communicating with is cut back on the verbosity of written and verbal communication and just get straight to the point in clear and concise terms(Ph.D's especially have trouble with cutting back on words, since they like to talk and witness a captive audience listening to the sound of their voice or reading some e-mail or document from them that has a title that is far to long with content that is excessively verbose). Getting straight to the point of communication with as few words as possible gives the brain less work in understanding the communication.
A rule of thumb is to calm down before writing a letter or e-mail. Being emotional makes it more likely that you'll say or write something that you will regret later. Also keep in mind that when writing e-mail at work, someone other than your intended recipient can and in fact might see this e-mail. Don't write anything you wouldn't want a third party to read.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
emotional vacuum
At one point in the late 1990s, when I hated my job (which required a lot of emailing to interested parties), I carried out some loose experiments based on the idea that email was so devoid of metacommunication and email readers were so desperate for it, they would latch on to any clue I gave them. I created a list of simple emotion names (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, etc.) and then made a point of using just one of these words at least 3 times in every email reply. Whenever I received an answer to one of these experimental emails, I tried to carry out an objective analysis of the writer's emotional state.
I eventually concluded that my hypothetical projection effect seemed to work best with the stronger emotions such as anger. Fear came in second place, though this one usually looked a lot like paranoia with an angry edge. Sadness was a distant third, perhaps because sadness was misinterpreted as depression and depressed people aren't terribly active.
For whatever reason, email in the "happy" group almost never received replies. As I neared the time when I finally left that position, I ended up filling all of my emails with words like "happiness" and "joy" and that sort of thing.
Maybe they thought I was a religious nut.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Email Is More Written than Spoken
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Good one, m59
One clear advantage I see with e-mail has not been mentioned - you can always re-read & edit your text before sending. Likely, most people don't take the time for that, as they think they're so busy and important - many don't even bother with spell check, let alone additional thought....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
10 more email rules
11. Stop cc'ing your backup on the most important projects two weeks before you go on vacation. They'll get a kick out of trying to figure out WTH is going on while you're hiking in New Zealand for the next month.
12. Answer questions with irrelevant answers. For example, if the question is "Do your RHEL 5 installs kernel panic with the latest driver?", reply with "I'm having no problems with Win2K3". It's always good for a laugh.
13. Don't include your phone number, just in case someone actually needs to speak with you.
14. Save time by reading every 3rd or 4th word, then reply based on only what you read.
15. Use lots of long run-on sentences, in one long paragragh, instead of using numbered lists or bullets.
16. If an urgent message regarding a high-priority project hits your inbox at 09:00, don't reply until 18:30 just before you leave the office. No point in getting all involved in a crisis during your busy day.
17. Take advantage of team meetings to send messages to your SO. But do it from your notebook not your iPhone, because that would just be too tacky.
18. Use witty signatures in messages to your customers. Something like "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them". Instills that "warm and fuzzy" feeling on the other end.
19. Never reply with the "include original message" feature enabled. That would be TMI for anyone. Who needs a stinkin' thread to know what's going on?
20. Heck, why even bother answering the original message when you can reply in a new one that doesn't include everyone that was on the original? Be sure to observe rule #1 when doing this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
reading tone and emotion through emails
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
emotions in e mails
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
E-mails
[ link to this | view in chronology ]