Email cuts ruthlessly through the preparation that usually accompanies compositions on paper. Electronic messages tend to be pithy, almost blunt, stripped of artifice and often the fundamentals of grammar. Replies are brisk because you simply ask the software, usually Qualcomm's Eudora, to 'Reply', and the entire text of the original message being quoted - giving you context with which to respond to the original missive. Quoting is important, if often overdone, because it allows the recipient of your message to follow the 'thread' or flow of the information exchange. This may not seem important in the context of traditional mail, when a person might receive three or four personal letters a month and respond to one of them.
Email brings a whole new kind of perspective on communication.
Not quite as formal as a fax, which carries some of the authority of a printed letter yet more considered than a telephone conversation, email defines a fast, oddly organic way of communicating. Email is not only used for personal communication. It is also a way to deliver text only newsletters, public relations releases and to participate in discussion lists. Almost all of these functions bring a kind of low key realisation of the promise of a new medium. Traditionally, media such as this newspaper offer readers a representative selection of information, balanced and weighted on the basis of intuition and general formulae.