Study the following topical vocabulary to help you read and translate the text below

instantaneously		миттєво
disembodied voice		несформований голос
heading		заголовок
simultaneously		одночасно
collaborative efforts		спільні зусилля
to keep in touch		підтримувати зв’язок
feedback		зворотний зв’язок
sloppy		недбалий
to edit		редагувати
to delete		стирати
face-to-face conversation		особиста розмова
awkward situation		скрутна ситуація
to compile		компонувати, збирати
humble		скромний
to adhere		дотримуватись
missive		послання

Electronic mail belongs to a category of its own. Because many people have access to computers, a quick and easy way to send messages that are instantaneously delivered is through the electronic mail system. Increasingly, business people use E-mail instead of the telephone. To use E-mail, you need a computer that is networked via modem to other computers, either in a small in – house system (called a local area network) or in national and international networks such as America Online. CompuServe, and other services that can link you to the global network, Internet. So, anyone who wants to send you an E-mail message just tells the e-mail program the appropriate address and runs the Send command. The Internet takes over from there and makes sure the missive arrives safely. Like any new technology, E-mail has both strengths and weakness that translate to advantages and disadvantages for users.

Advantages. The convenience of quick delivery, the minimal cost of sending a message almost anywhere in the world, and the effect of words printed on a screen (as opposed to a disembodied voice over the telephone) have made E-mail especially useful. Furthermore, E-mail has opened new channels of communication inside organizations.

Lower-level employees who may otherwise have no contact with upper management can send E-mail messages to top managers as easily as to their own colleagues.

A second advantage of E-mail is that it allows you to send your message to many people at once.

The “CC” (copies to) line in the heading let you type in as many names as you wish; your message is sent to everyone simultaneously, saving time, duplicating costs and paper.

A third advantage is that E-mail is extremely useful for collaborative efforts. People working together on team projects or research can keep in touch over long distance via E-mail and can attach files to send electronically for the receiver to download. Collaborators can send drafts of their portions reports or other documents to all of their co-writers and can get immediate feedback. The various portions can then be edited and compiled into the final document – all at long distance.

Disadvantages. Because E-mail messages are informal and quick, writers may be sloppy in transferring their thoughts to the screen. Misspellings and ungrammatical sentences can project a negative image if users don’t take time to edit what they write – even on E-mail. Second, the messages are sent and read on line, often leaving no paper trail at all. It’s easy to read your electronic mail and delete it instead of printing out a copy of the message to keep in a file. As a result, some important messages are forgotten or lost. It’s a good idea to think twice before deleting a message. Electronic communication can be slow if people don’t check their messages.

Another disadvantage is the increasing use of E-mail as a replacement for personal contact. Rather than picking up the phone or making a site visit, many people are opting to use E-mail as their primary form of communication. Even though messages sent over the telephone wires are quick and can be informal, they do not have the same effect as face-to-face conversations or the warmth and personality of a person’s voice over the phone.

Finally, writing on a computer screen often encourages people to drop inhibitions. It’s not unusual for people to write things in E-mail that they would never write in a paper or say over the telephone. This new freedom of communication can be beneficial, opening lines of honest communication, but it can also create some potentially awkward situations. When you send messages over the computer lines, remember that you are not talking to yourself. Your audience expects professional and courteous behavior.

It’s up to you to balance these advantages and disadvantages and decide when it’s appropriate to use E-mail and when it would be a better strategy to use paper correspondence, the telephone, or a personal visit.