Email: Now communicate in a better way
A new set of communication skills is required to improve email
interaction, reveals new study.Developing strategies to mimic
face-to-face interactions can really help.
A study shows how we use emoticons, subject lines, and signatures to
define how we want to be interpreted in email. And it is believed that
“a shift to email interaction requires a new set of interactional skills
to be developed.”
Unlike face-to-face conversations, email interactions leave out tone of
voice, body-language and context, which can lead to misunderstandings.
While these authors agree that there are difficulties, they believe that
no way of communicating is actually superior to another.
People can cultivate ways of communicating in online contexts that are
equally as effective as those used offline. The degree to which
individuals develop unique conventions in the medium will determine
their ability to communicate effectively.
The research focuses on “the case of a well-known scientific
organization that decided to replace occasional meetings of a research
panel with ongoing email interaction.” The panel encountered numerous
problems conversing via email. But the researchers identified several
ways people were able to overcome these barriers.
The study further revealed that the use of capital letters, quotations,
emoticons, exclamation points, punctuation, bullet points, style and
even color aided the sender in putting across the meaning of a word or
message.
Assume, “I am happy” meant differently from “I AM VERY DALIGHTED!! 
”
with the latter in capital letters and the smiley clearifies the
expressions.
Source: University of Chicago
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