ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604120021
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS
SOURCE: JOHN STRAUSS Associated Press
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt, the saying goes.
And so it is with electronic mail, which despite its high-tech cachet nonetheless carries a peril for the unwary communicator: saying too much, or saying it clumsily.
``I think it has come up so quickly that people haven't formalized the structure for writing these things,'' said Jack Mingo of Alameda, Calif., an author, trend-watcher and regular on the Internet ``misc.writing'' group.
E-mail is quickly substituting for paper mail at many companies, especially for internal communications. Charles Ray, a business professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., says many people with e-mail access haven't been trained to use it, have poor writing skills or mistakenly think they can ignore the formalities of writing.
``We have a whole new generation of business employees who need extensive work on their writing,'' said Ray, who teaches business education and office administration.
People in a business setting normally wouldn't send out sloppily written letters through the regular mail system. ``Yet people today don't think it is important to practice the same rules with e-mail,'' Ray said. ``They'll send messages with misspellings, typos or fail to recheck facts.''
Communication World magazine asked e-mail users on a CompuServe bulletin board whether e-mail is lowering grammatical standards.
``Writing on-line certainly is more spontaneous and casual because it normally is more like a conversation than a formal article,'' wrote Tom Geddie, a Dallas consultant. ``But the informality isn't bad. Sloppiness is bad.''
Mingo, author of ``How the Cadillac Got Its Fins'' and nine other business and humor books, said e-mail often has an unguarded quality that can result in communicating more than intended. ``Mistakes show, weaknesses of style and spelling show. And weaknesses of logic,'' he said.
``Sarcasm, pomposity, anger, self-pity and other odd clues to the person are often revealed. There's a kind of nakedness, and like real nakedness it can lead to anything from embarrassment to intimacy.''
Charles Pizzo, a partner in P.R. PR Inc. in New Orleans, noted that e-mail has the advantage of speed over most other written communication.
``On the other hand it does create a paper trail, and because of that, the significance that we attach to it is equal to the lifespan of the message.
``If it's a message that, `Yes, I can meet you at 2 o'clock today,' I may not give it much compositional or grammatical attention. But it's another thing if I'm writing to the CEO of a company.''
Gary Arlen, president of a Bethesda, Md., media research firm, said there was no excuse for the glitches in his writing.
``I'm a trained, meticulous writer - a master's in journalism and a former English major - but the nature of e-mail is that you always think you're just dashing off a quick message,'' he said.
``This morning I was writing something, and even as I was pushing the button to send it, I saw a couple of typos. Fortunately, the person I was writing is very understanding.''
Electronic writers in need of remedial help can often find it on line - naturally. Purdue University, the University of Michigan and other schools maintain on-line writing labs reachable through the World Wide Web.
The Writing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/writecenter/web/home.html) includes a section on basic prose style and mechanics.
Not everyone appreciates correction, as one writer found while visiting misc.writing, an on-line hangout for writers polished and unpolished. The visitor was discouraged by the level ``of bad writing, sloppy phrasing and atrocious spelling.''
``Are people who use misc.writing unable to write properly ... or is it merely an indication that this particular medium discourages attention to quality?''
Regulars on the conference, an electronic bulletin board with thousands of messages from around the world, fired back:
``RUDE,'' one writer said. ``A word found halfway between RIGID and SNOBBY.''
One offered this explanation: ``According to the Full Employment for Editors Act of 1996, writers are required to provide a certain number of errors in all of their work.''
Another was ready to prove that point:
``If what you have found here is so horrible, then why continue to subject youself [sic] to it?''
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB