<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi all--<div><br></div><div>This is my annual missive to students about email and other instant written communication, along the lines of my prior advice about backing up your work (by the way, have you done that today? No? Go, do it, now!).</div><div><br></div><div>This note is designed to perhaps save you from potential problems -- and no, it's not spurred by anything any of you has written (yet!), so don't worry about that. But it is based on years of observing how electronic miscommunications have caused people unintended and unnecessary grief.</div><div><br></div><div>As writers, you may all feel in control of your use of the written word. But email and its social networking progeny are deceptive in that, unlike hand-written or even hard copy, typed communication, they are singularly tone-deaf. You may write something in an email or facebook message that you think is simply informational, and it may come across as abrupt or even offensive. You may think something you wrote is clearly a joke, but it may read like an insult.</div><div><br></div><div>This is why emoticons were invented, as childish as they may seem--they emerged because something more was needed to inform the reader as to the writer's tone and intention.</div><div><br></div><div>There is also the fact that there is no built-in time-delay to force you to think about what you've written before you hit "send," and once it's sent, it's out there. Forever.</div><div><br></div><div>So, to sum up, approach your emails, especially important ones, as you would any other important piece of writing, only more so. Take some time. Read them over and rewrite them to be sure you're getting across what you want to. Put in a smiley face, even.</div><div><br></div><div>:)</div><div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Robin Russin</div><div><br></div><div>Associate Professor & Graduate Advisor<br>Department of Theatre<br>University of California, Riverside<br>Riverside, CA 92521<br>(951) 827-2707<br>(213) 949-1061 cel<br><a href="mailto:robin.russin@ucr.edu">robin.russin@ucr.edu</a><br><br>"I try all things; I achieve what I can." - Ishmael in "Moby Dick," written by Herman Melville</div><div><br>"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it." - William Munny in "Unforgiven," written by David Webb Peoples</div></div></span></span>
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