Email guidelines

Substituting for William Safire in today's New York Times Magazine (registration required) On Language, Patricia O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman make some excellent points about trends they see in email and what they would suggest instead in an article titled Virtual. Though I'm sure I'm guilty of some of the abuses they describe, I fall into that category of writer who cares about the quality of writing in the email messages he sends. I am particularly bothered when I get a message from a friend that would give the impression he or she has never been educated, even at a basic level, about good writing. Misspelled words, no captialization, failing to bother to fill in the subject line, all these things bespeak carelessness or apathy. I'm confident that my correspondents don't mean to offend by such omissions or failures, but I believe that the digital record of our correspondence may well outlast or be more widely distributed than any other writing any of us ever does. Why, I wonder, don't people give more thought or concern to how they may be remembered by future generations, or even by this one?
- posted by Perry @ 10:47 AM