Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better

Send is an essential primer on email composition, interpretation, etiquette, and practicalities. It serves as a good refresher course for any modern professional or personal computer user, no matter how long you've been using email. Even if you already know the importance of assigning people to the to: vs. cc: lines, what bcc: does, and how to compose a signature block, the anecdotal examples and email/text/letter/phone call decision tree are of benefit to anyone. I was most impressed by the authors' own example of email correspondence with their editor. They reprint some terse emails with their editor and discuss the two possible interpretations of his tone and wording (each author had a different interpretation; was the editor insisting that they send some progress notes immediately?). The exchange back and forth perfectly illustrates the way emails might be mis-composed or mis-interpreted, setting up the need for this primer. Send is a short book full of funny theoretical examples such as Bill Gates composing emails from his microsoft.com address, gatesfoundation address, and his hotmail.com address. It's packed with illustrative examples and practical advice about why email is both so fantastic and so troublesome. (Did you know that 70% of calls end up in voicemail? Why not send an email? When should you call instead?) The double-edged sword of email is how fast it can be composed. Email is appropriately used for everything from informal to formal conversation, so one must be cognizant of the larger context of their email composition. Authors David Shipley and Will Schwalbe remind us to "think before you send" and to "send email you would like to receive." The book is accompanied by an appendix on deciphering email headers, and full index, and bibliographical notes.

Professional, humorous discussion of how to communicate by email. Half and half style and etiquette guide, this book will help anyone be mindful of whom they're addressing and how to communicate with them effectively and courteously. My daughter may not find this to be her most exciting graduation gift, but I predict that over the years it will be one of her most useful.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It covers the important topic of better business communication through email, in a light hearted and humorous manner, drawing on real world examples. The two authors are experienced communicators, and their review of the most common errors, and suggested remedies, has the ring of truth. As writers and editors they have either committed these gaffs themselves or know someone who has. Well told, with useful information. Problem is, will those needing the help the most read the book? The millions of emails sent every day could benefit from the simple rules they set out. I hope every major corporation sends a copy to each of their managers and communicators!

The typical office worker deals with approximately 100 non-spam e-mails per day -- it is every bit as much a part of our communication mix as the phone and face-to-face, and yet it is considered by many to be the weakest. The thing is, many of the shortcomings and problems of e-mail can be addressed/alleviated with a few very simple practices, but most people receive NO training whatsoever in how to write and use e-mail effectively. That's where this book is so important and valuable. It can easily be read in a day or two, but the practices within it, if followed, can change the rest of your career. The book has a good mix of specific how-tos combined with real-world anecdotes. The anecdotes are hysterical and sometimes strike very close to home. I'm amazed they got so many people to open up so much with their e-mail horror stories. Also, the examples they use of various bad e-mail practices are very funny and keep the book light while still delivering a serious message. For a little added fun, go check out the video on YouTube of the interviews they did walking the streets and offices of New York. The one shortcoming of the book? There's not really anything in it about how to keep your e-mail well organized, especially when you have huge volumes of it to contend with, and that typically does have an impact on things like making timely responses to people, doing appropriate follow-ups, etc. For that, I recommend David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity or my book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors And Closing Deals Online.

"Send" is smart, timely, entertaining, a good investment -- and, as a reference book, a keeper. It combines the pithy good sense of Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" with the tongue-in-cheek humor of H. W. Fowler's "Modern English Usage" to produce the equivalent of Amy Vanderbilt's "Etiquette" for the e-set. While most of us take emailing for granted (and, unfortunately, never -- or only rarely -- think about how our message might be received at the other end), David Shipley and Will Schwalbe take us behind the electronic curtain to show us that digital yellow-brick roads might well conceal oodles of anti-personnel devices, most of them of our own unconscious design. "All ye who enter here..." might do well to stand at the portal to the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, there's no such warning. And so, all of us -- too glibly, too happily, too unreflectively -- bound through without first taking the time to learn some basic do's and don't's. Shipley and Schwalbe have compiled such a list -- and have provided anecdotes and illustrations aplenty to make digesting that list an eminently enjoyable undertaking. If, for example, you should ever experience "a sudden chill in the ether," you need only turn to page 131 to discover a possible source of the temperature drop between you and your pretended e-pal(s). While "Five Words That Almost Everyone Misuses" (p. 121) certainly wasn't necessary to any reader who's spent a pleasantly sardonic afternoon with Mr. or Mrs. Malaprop, "This Is Annoying How" is the kind of literary circus act that leaves us gasping with delight. If you're one of those readers who enjoyed Lynn Truss's "Eats(,) Shoots & Leaves" -- not only for its usefulness, but also for its moxy -- "Send" is your kind of book. If you're NOT that kind of reader, buy it anyway -- it may save (you) a friend.