Not What You Say, But How You Say It
BNet featured an article recently on Tonecheck, a new technology that will analyze the tone of emails before they’re sent. Similar to existing standard spell checks, this software purports to go over every inch of your email, looking for little ambiguous statements that might get you in trouble.
Think it sounds too silly? Tonecheck references a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that shows that those same tone and language faux pas cause email messages to be misinterpreted 50 percent of the time. I’m skeptical that a technology will be able to address tone any better than a human, but it does make one think about how schools communicate.
Consider the implications of that research, though: half of all emails miss the mark, whether it’s to convey an idea, a marketing message, or wish your grandmother happy birthday. Because of tone, for every two emails you send, one of them is going to be interpreted incorrectly. Today, I’ve already sent 22 emails. How many have you sent?
Picture via Nataliedee.com
This entry was posted on Monday, August 9th, 2010 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Email. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
