The art of the electronic epistle
Blogger “Spike” over at the Wordpress blog Buhjillions has an interesting piece up about Teaching Email.
The article suggests that email writing has become such a common, not to mention essential, activity that it should be taught in schools. Just as letter writing was once covered in Language Arts classrooms, Spike suggests that email writing should be formally taught:
They should be taught the (only slightly) technical details of email, just like we did for letters: how to address it, the parts (To:, From:, CC:, BCC:, Subject:, then the familiar salutation, body, closing), how to format not only original emails, but forwards and replies as well, the difference between HTML and Plaintext. They should be introduced to all the fun that can be had with formatting, colors, fonts, pictures, hyperlinks and the <blink> tag, have their little hearts broken when it doesn’t display like they intended on their friend’s email client, and then be gradually weaned away from all the bling to find styles that fit the tone and purpose of the email.
We’re in full agreement! The latest studies suggest that there are more than 77 billion corporate email messages sent every day, worldwide (Radicati Group). With numbers like that, it’s important that the people doing the sending know how to make their points clearly and concisely.