Email and text messages have taken communication into a whole new dimension. They are fast, economical and in some instances enable friends to keep in touch far more frequently than the ‘pen pal process’ ever did. Could such marvellous inventions possibly have any downsides? Well, yes they do. Consider the process of communication. When we are talking face to face with someone we understand what they are saying by three channels:1)      watching body language, 2)      understanding the words used3)      listening to the way the words are said (pitch, tone, emphasis, pace and inflection).Statistics indicate that, when we communicate face to face, body language helps us understand 55%, words 7%, and the way the words are said 38% of the message. So what does this mean when we are interpreting written communication? We cannot see the originators body language therefore we cannot pick up on any of the clues body language gives us (55%), neither can we interpret a message by the way it’s being said, (38%). Fortunately something called punctuation was invented so the sender could visually demonstrate emphasis, tone, inflection etc, in the written word. Commas, exclamation marks, brackets, full stops and all those other small but highly effective symbols help us to fill in the blanks left when we are trying to interpret a written message and body language and verbal emotions are not available to assist us. Thank goodness for punctuation! Great! Except that when people text or email, grammar and punctuation seem to have gone out of the window which totally changes the meaning of a message.  

Here is a well known example of how that can happen. An English professor wrote thesewords on the chalkboard:A woman without her man is nothing and asked his students to punctuate it correctly.All of the males in the class wrote:         A woman, without her man, is nothing.

All the females in the class wrote:          A woman: without her, man is nothing.Punctuation is everything. So that leaves us with 7% of the words – let’s be thankful for small mercies! Ah! Well no, that’s not the case. How many quickly and carelessly sent texts or emails have left the reader scratching their head in a ball of frustration as they try to second guess what the sender was trying to say? Interpreting the mass of hieroglyphics that makes up the message leaves us wondering when the sender started working for MI5. Trying to decipher shortened text can add minutes to understanding what the sender is trying to say.   Where am I going with all of this you may be wondering? The world changes and we should be prepared to change with it and embrace technology. I agree with that sentiment. I would simply like to suggest that is no wonder that ‘poor communication’ continues to be blamed in the workplace for reducing the standard customer service, low morale, misunderstandings and mistakes some of which are very expensive.  One cannot dismiss the benefits email and text messages have brought to communication, but equally they have brought confusion, frustration and costly mistakes which could drastically be improved by taking time to compose the message carefully, and with thought.  When writing a business letter most people will take time with punctuation, spelling mistakes and its composition. Despite all of this it can still be misinterpreted. It seems though that when we write a text or email we consider it acceptable to forget all the attributes that help make the written word easily understood. We seem to have accepted that fast methods of communication can be discharged with fast input and limited attention to simple tools that would make the content sensible and legible. Is it any wonder we misinterpret instructions, guidelines, methods, and simple messages? Is it any wonder mistakes are made at great expense?   I believe it is the sender’s responsibility to ensure that the content of their message has been fully understood. Sadly, many of us seem to think that with the simple press of a button the responsibility of understanding the message now falls solely upon the recipient.  For years we have all poured scorn on legal documents because they are written in ways we don’t understand and now we have invented our own version. It just doesn’t take as long to compose!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 9:18 am and is filed under Communication skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.