Email communication

[Erica Hollander]

Rebecca and Peter, Email is often not only read fast, but composed  
fast, and, although it might be possible to put a whole novel or a  
lot of nuance into it, usually it is used for quickness, so that it  
lacks much coloration and careful construction.  In a sense it is  
just the product of the high tech, high pressure culture we live in,  
designed to be above all speedy.  Amenities and civility, on the  
other hand,  take time.  This terseness leads to misunderstandings  
galore, and, if not necessary in the medium,  nonetheless often  
found.  Teaching online has certain problems that face to face  
teaching does not, for these reasons among others.  Erica Hollander