Orlando Chapter STC - 50th STC Conference

Professional Development

Notes from 50th International STC Conference
Dallas, Texas, May 18-21, 2003

Send Me an E-Mail: From Messaging to E-Business Linchpin

Session Description: This session presented e-mail as much more than individual messages, showing how it is also a dynamic, interactive process for reaching new markets. Topics included writing style, etiquette, use in teaching, and e-business.

A Critical Look at E-Mail

Charles R. Crawley
Rockwell Collins

Charles R. Crawley, with Rockwell Collins, is president of the Eastern Iowa STC Chapter

610 billion e-mails sent worldwide per year.
People will send an e-mail when they will not write a letter or call.
E-mail in cultural consciousness: "You've Got Mail," Disobedience, Dilbert.
E-mail has become almost indispensable.
Advantages of e-mail

Unobtrusive
Written record
Time for deliberative response
It's private (to a certain extent)
It's cheap

Disadvantages of e-mail

Can be sent to anyone, including your boss's boss
Lack of physical cues creates ambiguity, losing satirical intent, for example (solved with emoticons)
Lack of synchronicity

Sometimes a face-to-face meeting is the only way to communicate.
Disappointments of E-mail

Lack of response
Lack of quick response
Terse reply

Many companies monitor use.
Post-911 government tracking of "suspicious e-mail patterns" treads a delicate balance between homeland security and invasion of privacy.
Writing e-mail

Start with your audience.
Don't know your audience? Compose a fictional audience and write to them.
Title your e-mail carefully.
Is e-mail speech or writing? (If speech, writer uses more informal style; if writing, writer uses more formal style.)
E-mail is an "emerging language: a language centaur – part speech, part writing": Naomi Baron
In writing e-mail indicate urgency and necessity of response.
Always spell-check and reread before sending.
Be sure to get the mailing address right.
Which e-mail to use: work vs. personal vs which personal?

Reading e-mail

We are technical readers as well as writers
Avoid reading more into e-mail than is appropriate

Responding to e-mail

Does every e-mail deserve a response? Spam – no! Do not respond to e-mail from people
Personal e-mails deserve a personal reply.
Response times: average response time is shrinking: interoffice e-mails should be answered

Storing e-mail

One long directory
Organized into folders: titles are important for this

E-Mail in the Classroom

Lynnette R. Porter
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Lynnette R. Porter, with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is an STC Associate Fellow and a member of the Space Tech Chapter.

Course may be entirely online (distance learning), in which e-mail becomes a communication linchpin, or a traditional classroom course, where e-mail becomes an ancillary communication medium.
Four categories of e-mails (purposes)

Announcement/reminders: bulk distribution to class
Assignments/feedback about assignments: this type of feedback is quite effective
Q&A: becoming increasingly important
Rapport building: e-mail helps reach shy students and is less threatening

Special concerns in education

Decreasing the formality between teacher and students (some international students may be put off by this, expecting more formality... e.g., first name vs. full title). Taken to the extreme, informality can erode authority.
Increasing students' procrastination: speed of e-communication gives illusion of more time, may undercut thoroughness of preparation
Limiting the time students take to think and analyze before responding
Limiting the use of traditional print resources
Increasing the difficulty in verifying credentials and sources of information

Positive aspects of e-mail

E-mail in a structured environment can encourage out-of-class interaction and help students to work together.
Asynchronous communication may be beneficial for students who are shy during face-to-face discussions or who need more time to compose, revise, and check their statements before making them before a group (this is especially useful for ESL students who lack real-time fluency in the primary classroom language).
E-mail can encourage the teacher's thoughtful comments.
Online mentors can work closely with students on a project.

Interactive E-Mail

Susan B. Moore
EDS

Susan B. Moore, with EDS, is a writer and editor.

EDS recently made the news with layoffs, but still has 120,000 employees in 40+ countries.
E-mail has actually increased rather than decreased the quantity of writing, but it has probably also decreased the quality of writing.
E-mail has created an explosion of interpersonal communication as well as increased real-time remote business communication.
Business uses of e-mail will be increasing.
E-mail marketing. Has become a major business trend. As people surf and leave their e-mail addresses at various sites, they become a targeted audience for the products associated with those sites.
Nielsen ratings reported that a group of Web sites attracted more than Amazon and Google in October 2002: U.S. Government.
More teen-age boys in Hong Kong surf the Net than watch TV.
Parents surf more than non-parents.
What percentage of U.S. population went online in November 2002? 72% Holiday shopping probably drove the numbers up (78% of those who went online bought something online).
How many American consumers regularly access local advertising content? 60%
By 2007, local online advertising spending is expected to reach $3.5M.
By 2004 worldwide business-to-business e-commerce revenues are expected to total $2.7 trillion.
Example: Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has an interactive e-mail approach which activates music from concerts and facilitates online ordering of tickets (requires Flash).
In the future, multimedia e-mails will be browser-independent, with no required plug-ins or downloads.

to Notes from 50th International STC Conference

Notes from 50th International STC Conference Dallas, Texas, May 18-21, 2003