Peer to Peer Magazine

78 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2016 Tips on How To Improve Your Writing THE WORD ON WORDS With summer upon us, it seemed like a good time to revisit the method of communication that nearly put the U. S. Postal Service out of business. Personally, I miss the old days, arriving at the mailbox one minute late, the taste of glue still on my tongue. Those were good times. But I've concluded that email might be around for a while, so I should make peace with it and figure out how to use it effectively. In that spirit, for this issue and for the next three issues, I'll explore the art and science of writing emails, from addressing to editing to signing off. When I first tried email, I had to ask my assistant to print each one, so I could read it and dictate a response over her shoulder. When I learned how to use it myself, I remember feeling a lile jaunty. Words I would never write on paper seemed to fly from my fingertips, loose stuff, funny stuff, CLEVER STUFF! I loved hiing "Reply All" to let EVERYONE know how clever I was! Ha-ha! I could hardly contain myself! I have mostly recovered from those days, but a vestige remains. Psychologists call this the "online disinhibition effect." It's similar to wearing a mask at Mardi Gras, which frees us to goose strangers and drink bourbon through a straw. However psychologists try to explain it, we approach email with a different mindset. In an article titled "Email's Dark Side: 10 Psychology Studies," the author notes: "People consistently overestimate their ability to communicate effectively with email." A 2010 study found that "participants lied 50 percent more when they negotiated over email compared with pen-and-paper." One of the reasons, surmised researchers: "Emails are less permanent: it feels closer to chaing than writing a leer." And therein lies the crux of the problem: Subconsciously, a sheet of paper and an envelope feel permanent, and this informs how and what we write. When we know it will be around for a long time, we try harder to do it well. Email feels like it's going straight into someone's ear, rale around for a few moments, then head out the other side. So why should we care? Here's why: wisely or unwisely, we have embraced this medium to communicate important The Good, the Bad and the Email (Act I of IV) by Gary Kinder intro by Randi Mayes You've got mail! For all its convenience and efficiency, to say nothing of its game-changing qualities, email is the bane of many peoples' professional lives. When it was new-fangled to us old-timers, its quirky, speedy, "not-quite-writing-and-not-quite-talking" format was fascinating. For better or worse, it is the communication medium of choice and necessity in most business transactions. The expediency and permanence of the record are important components in communication. Learning to use the medium most effectively lessens the pain for sender and receiver. Let's get smart with our email. Gary will tell us how, across four lessons, starting now.

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