Email and Business Correspondence
by Alya Leuca
Emailis the most widely spread type of business correspondence inthe contemporary office. A lot of inconveniences of previous types of business correspondence likeletters,memosandfaxescan be
eliminated by sending anemail message. And though letters,memos and faxes are still used email has transformed them all.
Have you ever thought how much email has changed the world? Maybe youhaven't... Email appeared along with the Internet and cell phones and thelatter two were bigger than life themselves so it was easy to overlookemail... By the way, why "email" and not "e-mail"? The printed media stillsticks to “e-mail”, but the inconvenience of typing the hyphen is too big andomitting it is too simple. Hence, "e-mail" is fast turning into "email".Actually, this symbolizes the essence of email: eliminating most of theinconveniences of previous types of correspondence like letters, memos andfaxes and simplifying them.Let’s talk about business email specifically. It is transforming workplacecommunication in a blink of an eye. Before email business correspondencewas formal by definition. Nowadays not only email messages are less formalthan say business letters, but business letters themselves are using plainEnglish. And the fact that the same people who write email messages writebusiness letters is one of the reasons why. It’s impossible to communicate inemail as if you were speaking to the person you’re writing the message toand then turn around and write a letter using pompous ambiguous phrasesthat don’t sound right. Our minds just don't function that way.So, email has made communication more immediate, colloquial andintimate. Some people can’t stomach it insisting that professionalcorrespondence needs to remain formal. Choosing the right degree of formality for email is not an easy thing though. And the ability of email toallow for almost instant communication sounds wonderful but it can workagainst you if you are not careful. Email is such a convenient tool for thesender that he/she often forgets about the recipient. At the same time,email provokes the feeling of urgency in the recipient and most of us feelobliged to respond to the messages as soon as they are received. Andimagine what pressure people who get 200-300 emails a day are under! Nowonder email bankruptcy is becoming common. There’s another extreme:some of us also become addicted to email and check it while driving, onvacation and in most unusual places.Email etiquette rules are still evolving and sometimes we’re confused indealing with email. But the most basic rule, the one that we tend to forgetis: show in your email messages respect to the person you arecommunicating with. Remember, you can’t retrieve the sent email.Email hasn't ousted business letters and memos. Business letters are still
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