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SCMP Reporter

Sending electronic messages without thinking can result in serious consequences, book's authors warn
Using e-mail properly and effectively, rather than as a catalyst for communication clashes,   is the big issue for authors David Shipley  and Will Schwalbe.
In their book Send: The How, Why, When and When Not of E-mail,   Shipley, a deputy editor at The New York Times, and  Schwalbe, the editor-in-chief at Hyperion Books,  offer tips  on how to make e-mail work.
According to the authors, this is about more than jotting down a swift, succinct reply and launching a message into cyberspace. They also offer a glimpse into the cultural and business implications of this method of communication.
One of the principal themes running through the book is that bad things can happen in e-mail.
The premise is that most people use e-mail  badly, whether it's for social or business purposes,  regardless of what level they're at.
This is not only because people find it hard to say what they want to, or to understand what was intended to have been said in e-mails that are received. It is also that e-mails  gobble up our time, when the whole point  is that they should not.
'As Bob Geldof, the humanitarian rock musician, said, e-mail is dangerous because it gives us a 'feeling of action' - even when nothing is happening,' the authors commented.
In their opinion, e-mails cause problems  because the people writing them forget that they leave an indelible electronic record, or because they forget to compose them properly and so  people  can't understand what  they are trying to say.
The lack of tone,  eye contact or even body language between senders and recipients, and the problem with determining the relationship between them, were other issues that could turn e-mail into a bogeyman, the authors said.
The extraordinary speed at which we send and receive e-mails is also a hindrance rather than a help because it encourages us to leap into the fray and launch a response  without considering it properly.
'The speed of e-mail doesn't just make it easier to lose our cool - it actually eggs us on,' Shipley and Schwalbe said.
'On e-mail, people aren't quite themselves: they are angrier, less sympathetic, less aware, more easily wounded, even more gossipy and duplicitous. E-mail has a tendency to encourage the lesser angels of our nature.'
In this regard, they have created a  list in the book  titled the Eight Deadly Sins of E-mail. These range from  vague  ('Remember to do that thing') or insulting  ('HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE DONE THAT THING?!!!!'); to criminal  ('Please tell them that I asked you to sell that thing when it hit $70').
Other things that people should avoid are   using e-mail  to avoid a face-to-face confrontation  ('Here's the thing: you're being let go'); and the e-mail that won't go away ('Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: that thing').
There is also the e-mail that's too casual ('Hiya! Any word on that admissions thing?'). Finally, there is the e-mail that is inappropriate ('Want to come to my hotel room to discuss that thing?').
That is not to say, however, that  the authors don't believe that e-mail is a wondrous creation  that is of great benefit to our lives. They genuinely want to help readers learn how to e-mail not only adequately but well, and to be able to control the quality and quantity of what they send. Equally, they want to show readers when not to use e-mail.
'Today, there are more ways to communicate than ever before. When should you e-mail? When is a text message more effective? How about a letter, or picking up the phone? Do you remember those? Or even a personal visit?' they said.
'Or, and this seems to be one of the most effective and least used options, simply doing nothing at all.'
If e-mail makes your blood run cold, seems to be taking over your daily life or is even becoming an obsession,  it might be worth educating yourself with this clever and practical resource.
Book Send
Authors David Shipley, Will Schwalbe
Publisher Canongate Books
In A Nutshell
Who should read this?
E-mail users of every age, and profession, from those whose fingers are seizing up from obsessive laptop tapping to people who cannot quite resist the temptation to answer heart-rending internet requests for personal investment from Nigerian banks in their spam box, or employees who feel the urge to copy the entire corporation on every  message they send.
Why should they read this?
This book is a must because its authors  want to help their readers come to terms with e-mail and make it work for them. And they are quite happy to expose their own mishaps to illustrate how things can go horribly wrong.
1 'We need to remind ourselves that just because we have e-mail, we shouldn't use it for everything,' write David Shipley and Will Schwalbe,  authors of Send: The How, Why, When and When Not of E-mail. 'Because of the speed and the seeming urgency of the new forms of communication available to us, many people simply grab the closest thing at hand. Or they get lured into eye-for-an-eye exchanges; if they get an e-mail, they reply by e-mail; if they get a letter, they feel compelled to respond by letter.'
2 'We are often so focused on what we want to say in an e-mail that we give too little thought to the mechanics,' Shipley and Schwalbe continue - 'especially when we are replying to a message rather than initiating one. 'This is because the To, Cc, and Bcc fields and the Subject line are built into our e-mail programs, so we consign them to a default mode: simply hit one of the Reply buttons, and everything is filled in for you.'
3 E-mail is ruthlessly democratic. 'It's hard to tell what's important and what isn't. Your Subject line is one of the few cues you can offer a correspondent to let him or her know when and how to read your message.' Likewise, 'asking people not to read the e-mail you just sent them - Subject: Recall Last Message - is an invitation for them to read it and then disseminate its contents as widely as possible.'
4 The greeting is key, according to the authors. 'It's your first, and probably most important, opportunity to show your correspondents what you think your relationship is to them. An inappropriate salutation colours all that follows. You can lose them at 'hello'.'
5 People you do not know should be hailed Mr and Ms, while addressing people by their full name, 'as Mr Kevin Bacon, for example, instead of simply Mr Bacon', can make a piece of correspondence look as if it is part of a mail-merge. Also, 'there should be no double standards. Men are Mr, and women are Ms, and not Rita or Sweetie.'



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