Did I really say that?

New Scientist's 'Last Word' feature last week had a question about why people can be so aggressive in on-line forums. It's a question that's of great interest to me and my fellow editors.

It's not just that the polite world of SfEPline* can occasionally degenerated into a free-for-all slanging match; communicating via email can be problematic too.

For example, I still can't get used to writing emails to my mother or mother-in-law; their replies don't 'sound' like them, whereas I'm pretty sure my emails 'sound' like me - but do they?

Work-related communication is even more fraught with potential difficulties. I once clattered out an urgent work-related message and fired it off into the ether - apparently without carefully checking whether I'd added enough caveats and requisite 'chit chat'; for the the virtually instant response said my message was 'curt'.

Oh dear! Having built up a rapport with an e-correspondent you would think it's not always necessary to go through the "how are you; thanks for your last message; have a nice day" rigmarole, but apparently not.

(Or is it just that I'm 'curt' in real life too? …Don't answer that, thanks.)

Anyway, I hope that the New Scientist article and the link I gave to a research paper on "email sociability" in the NS blog will get picked up by researchers somewhere. At the very least, business email users could benefit from general guidance as to what is and is not deemed acceptable e-speak.

* SfEPline is a Yahoo group used by members of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (of which I'm an Advanced member).