You Send Me

by O'Conner, Patricia T.

• ISBN13: 9780151005932
• ISBN10: 0151005931
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Patricia T. O'Conner, the bestselling language maven who demystified grammar (Woe Is I) and writing (Words Fail Me) for legions of delighted readers, now takes on the challenge of polishing our electronic language skills.E-mail and the Internet need not be the death of good writing. In fact, the computer could be the best thing to happen to literacy since the printing press. Since we're all writing all the time, You Send Me helps us polish up our language and social skills in cyberspace.Dealing with subjects like etiquette ("To E or Not to E"), beefier writing ("The E-Mail Eunuch"), and civilized English ("Go Configure"), the authors deliver everything you need to know to achieve virtual savvy. If you'd like to upgrade your e-mail and other online writing, this is the book for you.

Author Biography

Patricia T. O'Conner is the author of the beloved and bestselling Woe Is I and Words Fail Me. A former editor at the New York Times Book Review, she has written for many magazines and newspapers.

Stewart Kellerman, her co-author and husband, is also a former Times editor. He has reviewed books and written on literary subjects for the Times. They live in rural Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Virtual Mensch
Protocool: Attitude Adjustment	p. 9
All's Well That Sends Well: Anatomy of an E-Mail	p. 29
To E or Not to E: When Online's Out of Line	p. 46
Accustomed to Your Interface: Keeping the Reader in Mind	p. 63
A Click and a Promise: Getting the Facts Straight	p. 81
Alpha Mail
Natural Selection: Conciser Is Nicer	p. 95
The E-Mail Eunuch: Beefing Up Wussy Writing	p. 105
The Trite Stuff: Nipping Cliches in the Bud	p. 121
Wired Write: Are You Making Sense?	p. 129
Get a Virtual Life: Operating Instructions	p. 140
Words of Passage
Grammar a la Modem: A Crash Course	p. 149
Go Configure: Abused, Confused, and Misused Words	p. 172
Alphabet Soup: Spelling It Right	p. 182
Period Piece: The Perils of Punctuation	p. 201
Afterword	p. 225
Bibliography	p. 227
Index	p. 231
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

1. ProtocoolAttitude AdjustmentOur friend Miles loves his job in the entertainment industry, but he dreads opening his e-mail. He never knows what will jump out of his in-box and grab him by the throat. Messages between colleagues have become curt, rude, aggressive. Sentences are often mere commands, shortened to quick barks. There's a sense that to be nice in e-mail is to show weakness. It's gotten so bad that Miles is seeing a cognitive therapist to help him deal with the stress.Welcome to the dark side. Sure, the digital revolution is awesome, the niftiest thing to come along since the wheel. Computers have made writing routine for people who almost never wrote before. Online bulletin boards, chat rooms, instant messages, Web pages, newsgroups, and the like have brought new meaning to the word "community." And e-mail has single-handedly revived the epistolary tradition, the venerable practice of writing letters.But not everybody's cheering. Miles (he asked us not to use his real name) isn't the only one who finds this new world hard to take. Others grumble about spam assaults, wacko chain letters, waves of mass-forwarded jokes, in-your-face instant messages, Web sites to nowhere, boorish behavior in chat rooms, complicated downloads that tie up their computers, and rampant misinformation. Some people are so bummed by e-mail that they won't have anything to do with it. So there!It's not hard to see what's happening. Like kids on their first visit to Toys "R" Us, we're experimenting with these new ways to communicate, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole or make a dump truck fly or see through the wrong end of a telescope. If we want to play nicely with others, boys and girls, we'll have to learn how to use our new toys.The Mouse That RoaredA corporate president we know showed us an e-mail that a software developer had sent to her and a dozen other people in her company. The message announced plans for a training session and added: "Please let me know if you would be interested in attending or if you would like an underling to attend."Ouch! Let's hope the training session wasn't about sensitivity in the workplace.It's strange how online writing can bring out the tactless oaf in even the nicest person. The dunderhead who sent that e-mail would never have used the word "underling" in a memo to be tacked up on the office bulletin board. Yet there it was, dropped as casually as you please into a mailing to a long list of people. Why not use the PA system?The next time you e-mail, show a little tact. For starters, adjust your attitude before you begin writing. Imagine how your message will look to the reader, and write the kind of e-mail you'd like to get if the tables were turned. When you've finished, reread the message before letting it go. Look for dissonant notes (like "underling"). As Jane, our editor, often says, "Leave no tone unturned." And never, never, never hit Send in anger-hit Send Later and store the radioactive mat

---

Excerpted from You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online by Patricia T. O'Conner, Stewart Kellerman
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.