My phone lives next to me 24/7. Every day involves checking and updating social media on the various accounts I run, and the majority feature time at the computer keyboard. Inevitably, this brings me into virtual contact with a lot of folk, both in a social/personal context and in the course of running the business...and of course means a large part of my working life is spent sending and receiving email. And here's the thing;
When e-mailing, an increasing number of people don't a) think about what they're typing in the first place, or b) review / edit what they've typed before hitting 'send'.
OK, nothing earth shattering there...but I suspect that this approach is somehow becoming more acceptable. That 'it's just an e-mail' and it doesn't matter if what is being foisted on an unsuspecting audience contains poor grammar, glaring typos, bad spelling or simply doesn't make sense.
Obviously, this isn't the case - and in a business context, can have a profound negative effect on how colleagues, peers and customers perceive you. I don't mean that every typo is a disaster - composing lengthy emails on a phone can be an open invitation for typos to creep in (but that surely presents MORE of an incentive to take the time to read a missive before launching it into the ether...?). Certainly, when composing a communiqué on a full-sized screen, mistake tolerance should be even lower, particularly on any system / platform featuring a half-decent spell-checker...But mistakes DO happen.
That being said, I regularly encounter emails that would have my English teacher reaching for the red pen of doom, merrily slashing 'Sp.' 'Gr.' and in some cases the dreaded 'See me' across them. "Text speak" has started to creep in - 'Ur' for 'Your' or 'You're', '2' for 'to' (yes, really) and *gasp of horror* the occasional 'LOL'. Argh. E-Mail IS meant to be a quick form of communication, but that, in my opinion at least, is no excuse for poor use of language. It wouldn't be acceptable in a written letter, but because of the incorrect notion that e-mail is throw-away, or possibly due to the sheer volume that people send, standards are definitely slipping.
As to sense making... I occasionally read e-mail that seems more stream of consciousness than coherent communication. Senders can sometimes appear to type whatever they happen to be thinking on a given subject - without consideration of how it will be read. Vague instructions, unclear explanations, disconnected paragraphs, context-less questions... all of these things result in my having to reply with a politely-phrased 'huh?', wasting everyone's valuable time. A quick review before sending would go a long way to alleviating this - and actually boost productivity.
Another seemingly widespread phenomenon involves individuals undergoing a sort of personality shift when sending e-mails. In the business world, e-mail is increasingly replacing real-time conversation - usually to overcome scheduling issues - and as such, it strikes me as highly important to put some thought into how prose will be received. If conversational style is dramatically different from written (e.g. a friendly, easy-going conversationalist who writes brusque, abrupt e-mail), the recipient will notice and react accordingly, based on the tone the e-mail takes - so isn't it worth taking the time to consider how e-mail reads? I certainly think so - and endeavour to do so. Again, this can be achieved with a simple read-through and asking some key questions - 'What do I need to convey?', 'Will what I have written make sense in the context it's presented in?' and 'How will this sound to my intended recipient(s)?' are good ones that I apply.
In short... 'I'll fire off a quick e-mail' should also contain the unspoken 'but I'll make sure it reads well before I send it'... It might just save a potentially costly reaction.
GJ
Graham is the Director of North Peak Solutions who can be followed at @NorthPeakLtd. Graham can be found at @Cragratz. He read this through SEVERAL times before posting it. Feel free to point and laugh at any errors.
