Lost in Translation

Tone is a difficult thing to explain. Remember when your parents would say "Don't use that tone of voice with me?" Your feelings come across by the way you say something. It is easy to change your tone when you're speaking. When you're writing it's very hard to do. Setting the right tone in e-mail writing is more than just choosing the right wine to go with the meal. Tone in e-mail - how you say what you say - is so important because it is easy to misinterpret or overreact to email messages. I have learned this lesson the hard way quite recently. Having re-read certain emails written so long ago, I can clearly see how an email intended to convey one message could be misconstrued when read by a third-party. The outcome can be damaging.

A University of Chicago study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shows that people overestimate their ability to convey tone in email messages. Study participants recorded messages vocally and wrote them in email messages. The message recipients' success rate at understanding the tone of the message was significantly higher verbally than via email. The reason for this communication disconnect, the researchers find, is egocentrism: the well-established social psychological phenomenon whereby people have a difficult time detaching themselves from their own perspectives and understanding how other people will interpret them.

According to the study I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time. "People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains. At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times. This is a REALLY important point to keep in mind with any textual communication - be it email message, IM, blog or forum post. So many misunderstandings and hurt feelings and instances of offended or simply befuddled recipients could be avoided if we all assumed a little less that everyone knows we're teasing, joking or being sarcastic.

Because e-mail lacks the formatting of print, and the body language of in-person communication, the words themselves carry more feeling. And because e-mail messages are read quickly, an inappropriate tone can distract your reader and obstruct your message. "E-mail is very easy to misinterpret, which not only triggers flame wars but lots of litigation," says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the e-Policy Institute and author of guidebooks E-Mail Rules and Instant Messaging Rules. Many companies battle workplace lawsuits triggered by employee e-mail, according to Flynn.

Just let Humpty Dumpty be your guide, quoted here by Lewis Carroll: "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."