TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Is That Really What Your Email Meant to Say?

Is That Really What Your Email Meant to Say?

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:49:24 -0600

Billions of emails are sent around the globe each day but are their
true meanings getting across? Maybe not.

Although emails are quick and easy to send, their lack of facial cues,
body language and emotional feedback mean they can be easily
misinterpreted.

Kristin Byron, of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse
University in New York, believes that many email users could be
sending and getting mixed messages in emails.

"A first step toward improving accuracy in emails is to recognize the
possibility that we are fallible as both email senders and receivers,"
said Byron who is an assistant professor of management at the
university.

"People make the assumption that emails are very clear but that is
just not the case. There are a lot of misunderstandings," she added in
an interview.

One of the main points of confusion is that people forget that
emotions can be communicated in email. While facial expressions can be
easy to read, there aren't the same clear signals in emails.

Misinterpreted emails could be a particular minefield in the workplace
with co-workers perceiving emotional content in the email that may not
be intended.

Emotions can be expressed in emails through punctuation marks and
other techniques but that can confuse the message even more, according
to Byron who will report her findings in the journal Academy of
Management Review.

"The use of exclamation points, asterisks, or capital letters, the
length of the message, even the use of emoticons all can be used or
perceived to communicate emotion. Yet these are ambiguous in email
communication -- and are often discouraged from use in the workplace
-- and therefore may be misinterpreted," she said.

Emoticons are symbols such as smiling faces or characters on keyboards
used in emails to show emotion.

To improve email communication and lower the risk of sending the wrong
signals Byron suggests email users express themselves clearly and
repeat important information they want to convey.

Companies might also consider offering training in the use of emails at
work.

"With the increasing reliance on emails in the workplace, understanding
how to effectively communicate emotions by email is crucial," Byron added.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news and headlines, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: USTelecom dailyLead: "EarthLink Lands Houston Wi-Fi Network Deal"
Go to Previous message: communicationsdirect_daily: "CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page