Expressing Yourself Accurately In Digital Mediums. *Gesticulates something ambiguous*

Morning all,

I hope you all had a wonderful X-mas and New Years. It's 2011 and I just can't believe how time flies. Well, my holidays were cut short due to the devastation caused by the QLD floods. Poor Queensland has endured mother natures worst recently -- especially after Cyclone Yasi hit the coast. Luckily, family and friends are safe.

So, the university year is about to begin, and this year I'm completing a thesis. The topic I have chosen to analyse is, surprise surprise, online communication. And this prompted me to write my first blog for 2011.
 This thesis will focus on asynchronous online communication (e-mailing) -- asychronous  means out of sync or not immediate. Philosophically speaking we can't be completely synchronous in communication anyway... but I'll leave that for another time. :-)

Everyday, thousands of people make errors when reading and writing an e-mail, writing a blog (please pull me up if you ever see any :-), posting on Myspace and Facebook or generally posting in forums. Accurately conveying a message is just as important, in the digital medium, as it is in the face-to-face medium; however, the digital medium, especially with text, requires a different skill set in the absence of non-verbal communication.

Let's just focus on e-mailing right now. Tell me, have you ever multi-tasked when writing an e-mail? What I mean is, are you flicking back and forward between websites, perhaps Facebooking (*tsk tsk*), when you're composing or reading an email? Do you re-read your composition over before you press send?

Well, congratulations if you do! If you don't, well don't beat yourself up, occasionally I do it too :) But here's a good reason why you should focus when communicating. Language is the closest we can become to being 'known' by another. We want other people to hear our point of view, to accurately understand our ideas, and to join with other people. It's the best  part about being human ... the ability to connect in complex and profound ways with other people.


To do this properly, you need to be a critic to yourself. Don't settle for average communication. It could be the difference between making an important connection, or not. Having a client choose your services, or not. Upsetting a friend, or not.


So here's a list of tips to make sure your messages are effectively composed, and that you accurately read other peoples messages.


Tips for composing your own message:

• Spell-checker, it's there so use it. :-)
  
• Punctuation! Very important. Not just for writers, but for anyone who wants to communicate effectively with others. 
• Express yourself! :-) *Poses like Michael Jackson and 'Woohoos' * -- Alright, it's not necessary to go this far. However, sometimes injecting a bit of yourself through, comprehendible, creativity helps the reader to understand the tone or context in which you sent the message. 
• Read your message out loud. Yes, you'll be amazed at how clunky some of your sentences will be. 
• Capitalise and use full-stops. We need to know where it starts and where it ends.
• A sentence is 15 - 20 words, not 100 words.
• If it's a very important e-mail, hire some fresh eyes by asking a spouse or friend to double-check it.
• Some words are better than others. If you think a sentence could sound better, change it. And importantly, don't be afraid to change it... editing is what great writing is all about.
• We live in an age of quick information sources so don't write a long winded e-mail. To-the-point e-mails are much more likely to be read accurately than those that don't.
• Emotionless subject area. Another way to ensure your e-mail is read accurately in the first place, is to keep emotion out of the subject line. Imagine how the reader will receive your message if the subject is: HOW DARE YOU!
• Before criticising someone's e-mail or post online, make sure you understand them first. It's easy to jump to conclusions that someone is ignorant or wrong, than to ask for clarification. You'll be surprised at how much people convey content, without meaning to. 
• DON'T USE ALL CAPITALS. It can be offensive to some people. If you want to put emphasis on a word, simply italicise or bold it. In FB chat you can bold something by putting two stars around a word like *this*. In e-mails you should have an italicise option.  

Reading Messages:

• Read the e-mail out loud to yourself. 
• If you aren't exactly sure what the message means, ask for clarification, or if it's an e-mail in a chain of back and forward replies, read earlier ones.
• Try to keep focused on the task at hand. If it's a very important e-mail you're reading, make sure there are few distractions around. 
• If you decide the person who sent you the e-mail is being nasty on purpose. Resolve it by ringing them, don't reply, or reply with dignity. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for a puposeless flame war that ends up wasting time, offending others and simply ruining what could be an effective connection/friendship.

Here is a focused section devoted to therapeutic responses to e-mails.

Composing Clients Emails:

• Replying to a client's e-mail is often more effective if you address a paragraph at a time. Often you can receive anywhere from 500 to 2000 words from a client and it helps to segment those larger ones into sections. Put your writing or the client's writing in a darker or lighter shade to denote who's writing is who's. 

For example.

I've been having problems getting to sleep at night.

- How long has this been going on for? 

Sometimes I have bad dreams and I wake up and I can't get back to sleep because I'm so scared. 

- What are you scared of in particular?

This is just a short example, but if your client is already feeling overwhelmed, reading an e-mail can seem like a chore. Setting it out like this helps them to intuitively seperate a large message into smaller, tolerable chunks.


Receiving Clients E-mails:

• When reading your client's email, make sure there are no distractions, read it slowly and perhaps take notes if that helps. The first thing they're looking for is that you understand them. Understanding comes from 'hearing' their message right in the first place. (I close down all other programs on my computer and close my office door when dealing with client emails.)

This is just a small start to what it takes to communicate effectively in an online environment. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Enjoy your weekend!

Kylie Coulter