Aug 7th 2007 01:03 pm English as a First Language
I am an email addict.
I belong to a ton of industry forums, several Memphis area mailing lists and have all the usual business email, orders, and so on. In all, I have some 100-200 emails in my inbox, every day.
The one thing that strikes me is how many of them are simply… unreadable.
Here, in no particular order, are things people do in email that drive me frickin’ nuts.
- No capitalization (you are NOT e e cummings)
- No subject and verb (That is what MAKES it a sentence)
- No punctuation or improper punctuation.
- Lack of subject and verb agreement.
- Misuse of There and Their and Insure and Ensure.
- Use shorthand. Is your life so incredibly busy that you can not spare the 3 seconds to write “See you later” rather than “c u ltr!” ?
- No paragraphs.
- No spell check.
- Forwarding me pictures of Jesus with a note telling me if I am not ashamed of Jesus I will send this to 5 -10 friends or to my whole inbox.
- Subject lines like : Question or Let me ask you or What do you think? (Maybe you could elucidate what the subject matter is?)
- Using one sentence where three or more are preferable.
- Using three sentences where one would be better.
Update: Using ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS!
I could go on, but it fascinates me that people who graduated high school (and many have degrees) can not turn out a readable paragraph.
Posted by Hugh / Writing
Lynn Wienck on 08 Aug 2007 at 10:24 am #
The skill of clear communication seems to elude many people. What you have described is the normal state of affairs, rather than an unusual happenstance. It’s going to get worse as there are entire generations which have remained unschooled in rules of grammar despite the mandatory twelve years of education in readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic.
It’s tragic.
Hugh on 08 Aug 2007 at 10:40 am #
Lynn-
I know. The fact that it is so common nearly drives me to distraction. What amazes me is not that they lack the tools, it is that the lack does not seem to bother them.
Richard on 09 Aug 2007 at 7:14 am #
Could you pass along those Memphis mailing lists? I’m curious to know what’s going on in this fair city.
Thanks!
Sandie on 12 Aug 2007 at 2:59 pm #
I LuV WrItInG LiKe THiS!!!!hahahahahahaha LMAO And THat MeanS LAUGHING MY ASS OFF!!!!!!!!!!!hehehehehe
Traci on 17 Aug 2007 at 5:18 pm #
Sandie just cracked me up. Anyway…I think often it isn’t a matter of a lack of education as it is laziness. I could be wrong though. I have been before…once I think. =P
Adam Snider on 29 Aug 2007 at 10:05 am #
Hugh, I know exactly how you feel. The worst is when “professionals” write emails like this. An former boss of mine used to send emails–to customers, no less–that were full of spelling and grammar errors, and rarely used proper capitalization.
It’s bad enough when she sends emails like that to her employees, and assumes that they’ll be able to figure out what task she is asking them to complete. To send such an unprofessional looking email to a customer is just foolishness. I wonder how many potential customers that company has lost because of the poorly written emails that the owner (i.e.: my former boss) sent them.