Misunderstanding Electronic Mail

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the question of how to correctly format your e-mail and attempts to illustrate proper form and usage. The author breaks down all of the components of an e-mail into different sections in order to help the user understand and identity problems that arise. The paper looks at the From line, To line, Date line, Subject line, the greeting, message body, and closing, as well as the importance of one's signature at the end of the message. In each of these sections, the author details some of the common mistakes people make and offers creative solutions to these potential problems.

From the Paper:

"Overall, his opening, body, and closing are acceptable, and don't really send any hidden messages, except his first word, "Hi" could be interpreted in the sense that he and Kathie, the message's intended recipient, know each other, as opposed to using a more formal form, the word hello, for example. In addition, his first paragraph could be misconstrued as rude because he lists off many discussion list platforms, each followed by a question mark, then explains that there are hundreds. The way this could be misconstrued is if, on first reading, someone thought he was being sarcastic. The rest of the e-mail clears that up however, as his tone gets more formal and more polite."

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