Email is a hybrid of writing and talking.
That is, one has to write the words, but the words are more in a speech dialect. Furthermore, email can be instant so it is less one-way communication and more of a dialogue. I find this interesting because such new forms of communication like email, chat, etc. give rise to new ways of BE-ing. One way to think about it is that communication in cyberspace creates something I'm going to call a cyborg. That is, the machine fused with the human create a new identity that is not a part of any of the real like dualistic concepts that humans rely on separated from the machine.