lack of communication

MGT 355: Managerial communication

Case Study

Written Critique

10/7/2010

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Designing Email Messages for Corporate Readers: a Case Study of Effective and Ineffective Rhetorical Strategies at a Fortune 100 Company

Sam H. DeKay (2010) writes that, “72% of all full time people have an email that they use for work” (pg 109). That is a very high percentage, almost 3 out of 4 people using email for work. Although face to face meeting are still the favored way to communicate, email was the most preferred to other forms of business communication. But this has huge implications, since more and more people are emailing each other. How do you, effectively communicate with others in this growing and evolving medium?

DeKay looked at about 23,000 employees at a Fortune 100 company from April of 2002 to December of 2003. They would receive 2 emails daily containing tips on how to better practice computer safety and security. These emails would have “…colorful clip art and have employed a variety of font styles and text colors” (DeKay, 2010, pg111). None of these emails were made to like the typical black and white memorandum-style emails that many expect to see in a business type setting. These emails are concerned “old style” emails in her case study. Then in 2008, upper management decided that it would change the style of these emails. Their visual layout was moved away from clip art, and the colorful font to more black text on a white background. These are the “new style” emails in DeKay’s study.

In her study, DeKay attempted to measure how effective each style was but looking at the monthly average of responses to each type of email style. “Old Style” brought in about 4 responses per month; “new style” had about 40 responses monthly. While it can be argued that “old style” was not able to hold on to and keep readers interest, it must be noted that there were several style changes between the two. For starters, “old style” did not include a “To:”, “From:”, and “CC” field. It was also missing a subject line, boldface, and underlining and was written in a more casual tone. While “new style” had all the fields that “old style” was missing, but it tended to miss titles, headings, paragraph breaks. As well as boldface, italics and clip art. Both never really ever had the corporate log in the email. Two other factors that had to be taken into account are genres and pragmatic functions. Genres are “…visual templates used by certain types of documents, including the arrangement of textual blocks on a page and the size and shape of pages composing the document” (DeKay, 2010, page 114). Pragmatic functions are just setting up the contents of the email so the reader can understand its meaning in a clear and concise way.

While Dekay points out that “old style” messages did not generate very much response back from the people that it was emailed to, all the responses that “new style” did generate may be a problem of its own. Many felt that the email was addressed for them and that the tips were to correct something that they were or had done something wrong. Often, employees would send responses expressing that they did not do the behavior the “Smart Tips” email was warning not to do. The form of the “new style” did a better job of conveying the information in its contents but since it had a “TO:” field, this caused many to become confused and was more than likely the real cause of why there “new style” had such a high response rate.

DeKay does a good job of pointing out a two very distinct styles of emails, however offers very little in the way saying which one is effective in communicating and which one is not. Both styles have pluses and minuses, and DeKay offers a solution of using software designed to let you take control over more features in your emails. This solution allows for people to better develop their emails from a visual standpoint, but what about those that are not lucky enough to have that option available to them?

It is here that I offer my thoughts on this subject. Emails are an evolving technology; you can do more with them now than you could a few years ago. However, inside a business context, it is not what you can do with an email; it is also WHAT you say in an email. If you as an employee are putting together an email, it is obvious that you have moved beyond planning of how to communicate your message and into planning how you are going to say it. The words you use can set your style and tone for the email. “You can vary your style to sound forceful, or objective, personal or formal, colorful or dry” (Bovee and Thrill, 2010, page 124). Part of your style is the words you use and how you structure them into sentences and paragraphs and how you structure them in the email. Although, like with everything electronic, you don’t have to limit yourself to just a cut and dry message, you can add some life to it! You can use clip art and pictures and color font if you want, you just have to know your audience and their needs. If you are sending out a mass email that is just to inform people; depending on what the email is about, clip art or other electronically media could help greatly to enhance your message.

Other times, many people expect business emails to be very dry and to the point. While this is very helpful in getting information across, if you are anything like me, you write very similar to how you talk. This can be a bad thing, if used in the wrong way. A blending of the two styles that DeKay talks about is my offer. “New style” emails do a great job of genre features, pretty much everything you expect to see in an email. The hard part is blending it with “old style” pragmatic functions such as structural and stylistic cues. These can help make your email feel less dry and impersonal and give you the ability to set the email in your style and tone. My last advice comes from our own communications book, “Although style can be refined during the revision process…, you’ll save time and a lot of rewriting if you use a style that allows you to achieve the desired tone from the start” (Bovee and Thrill, 2010, page 124).” This just plays into knowing your style and being able to determine if it is the right style you should be using in writing a particular email. If not, it would be best to use another style better suited so you do not have to spend a great deal of time rewriting your email.

In parting, emails are an evolving technology that can allow you to communicate in was you may not have been able to before. There are two very distinct style for writing an email in existence right now; one way is more colorful and casual set while the other is more dry and formal. Neither are bad in their own right, it is up to the writer to figure out not only how to communicate, but also figure out how best to structure that message. If one of the above styles works, use it. But more times than not, the answering going to lie somewhere in between the extremes. All that is left is for the writer to figure out which shade of gray is best for them.

References

Bovee, Courtland L,; Thrill, John V. “Business Communication Today.” Prentice Hall. United States of

America. October 7, 2010.

DeKay, Sam H. “Designing Email Messages for Corporate Readers: a Case Study of Effective and

Ineffective Rhetorical Strategies at a Fortune 100 Company.” Business Communication

Quarterly. January, 2010. <http://bcq.sagepub.com/content/73/1/109.extract>. Ocotober 7, 2010.