Comments on: Say so long to traditional letter writing

What would Emily Post think about e-mail invitations and IM chats? She died 47 years ago, so we asked her great-granddaughter.

[tbpeders]

Yes, but not for smaller children...

It is true that printed letters don't make a lot of sense for adults any more, but there is one age group that still gets excited about real mail and that's the smaller children.



I have recently started a service called Little Pen Pal, which is a virtual pen pal service for children age 3-9. We have a gallery of exciting, fictional characters from all over the world that send children fun letters about their adventures. Besides creating excitement when the child discovers the letter in the mail (my 5-year-old literally JUMPS when he sees it), our characters also encourage reading as well as teach children about other cultures and languages.

We have launched in English and will soon add Spanish and other languages. You can take a look here:

http://littlepenpal.com

[sdf563]

Spelling and etiquette

Full-proof????? People who write articles, especially about
etiquette, should make sure they don't misspell!!

[SPasse]

Formality of e-mail

Hi All,

There is even a wide gulf of opinion in the formality of structure and etiquette of e-mails.

Because I attended an old fashioned private primary school, I was thought the ?old school? method of letter writing.

When e-mail became part of my daily life, I tended to write e-mails that were more or less the electronic equivalent of letters. The meant the inclusion of a formal salutation etc.

Today I still do. However much of the e-mail that I receive from others is more of an ?IM? style; apparently most people think my approach is to ?formal?.

Of course the opposite extreme is the IM communications that the upcoming generation uses; I have to get out my IM ?codebook? to even decipher them.

I am also afraid that because I have been using ?word processors? for so many years, even though I was taught the Palmer Method of penmanship, today I can barely sign a check.

So I guess that I am saying that professionalism should influence the quality of e-mail just as it has for paper and pen letter writing.

Regards,

Scott

[GeoNorth]

Tend to agree...

...I tend to write my emails as sort of letters without the "Dear..." and "Yours etc" I even lay off the txtspk and IM slang in texts, IMs and chatrooms (even on mobile phones with the 4x3 keypad, I do use the odd abbreviation when I have to be really quick and I can be sure that the recipient knows what that abbreviation means.

I've garnered the wrath of one or two users in IM irritated because I use too many long words, apparently spelling words correctly means that I "think I'm better than everyone else" (which I take as that person [i]knowing[/i] that I'm better than him)

[marileev]

Formality Okay in Business

SPasse & GeoNorth:

In my department, I expect less formality over IM and definitely use abbreviations or phonetic clippings like "da" for the or "ova" for over.

For email, I still use salutations like Hello Jane: or Dear John: strategically placing the "," or ":" as if I were writing a letter. However only using closings like "Regards," "Truly" or "Sincerely," in the first thread of the email conversation.

My style of emailing & IM have evolved over my professional life over the past 10+ years since I got my first inbox. My electronic writing style has gotten somewhat more casual because the worst thing for me is to come off overly haughty via email.

[Claire Gaeta]

Don't Go Down Without a Fight

Unfortunately, teachers are teaching so differently now.

When my daughter was in first grade, her teacher told me "It is not our responsibility to teach your child to read. We teach phonics and they need to learn to put it together".

Insanity has taken over and the baby has been tossed out with the bathwater.

I have seen college graduates who can not spell, printing business documents with profound errors in them. People tend to rely on spell check and that feature is not available in the handwritten letter!

Letters along with other traditions are fast beomming obsolete. Perhaps someday, voices will be heard and people will return to a more traditional way of life. This is a long shot I know, however, one can hope!

[marileev]

Loose Lips of Email

There are a lot of truisms in the article, but one thing that this new generation of writers is missing is proofing their work. When you commit something to paper or print it out, you're more apt to spell-check, revise and re-edit.

Often emails and IMs are sent too quickly and in today's electronic professional sphere created one too many embarrassing moments:

* Diana Abdala & William Korman (the Bla, bla, bla email thread)

* The Great Marquee Company in New Zealand lost loads of business & their server was inundated when the owner?s wife told a perspective client that their taste was "cheap, nasty and tacky"

* FEMA and Michael Brown -- nuff said

There are just too many ways people can turn things sour over email. Email's loose lips can potentially sink your business or reputation. Here's an article I wrote w/some tips on ameliorating that: http://www.essentialsecurity.com/news.htm?pagename=Customer_Service:_Email_Can_Make_or_Break_Your_Reputation

[shanedr]

Etiquette is the consideration of others

While Cindy Post Senning has a long history of dealing with etiquette I don't think she uses email enough to understand its place in social communications.

While I agree that any thank you note should be neatly written with care. That includes following the rules of spelling, punctuation and capitalization. I fail to see how those rules cannot be utilized in an email. The only problem with email is that some people do not have an email address.

While some - still - can't afford a computer and Internet access, for those who can and don't it shows a lack of forward thinking, possibly including an unhealthy view of tradition.

Less some think me overly young, I am 62 and am very much in favor of sending and receiving neat and well composed emails rather than snail mail of any kind. Not to mention that email is faster and cheaper.

[marileev]

Not all emails are good.

As you said, "email is faster and cheaper," but not every email I get from friends or colleagues is always good.

I think the article emphasizes the shift not only from pen to digital, but also the shift in the type of vernacular used when composing messages.