Sample essay: Explaining an insight
Lauren Pent
Dr. Santos
English 101
10 September 1998
For many of us, turning on the computer and checking for e-mail messages has become as much a part of our daily routine as a trip to the mailbox. The growing popularity of e-mail makes us wonder how we ever survived without it. E-mail has many advantages over regular mail, including speed, low cost, and convenience. In our enthusiasm for e-mail, however, we would be unwise to abandon the post office altogether. For some purposes, e-mail is a poor substitute for "snail mail," both in our personal lives and in the business world.
There is no denying that e-mail has many advantages over regular mail. The most obvious advantage is speed. We can send e-mail around the world in a matter of minutes with no more effort than it takes to press a few keys on the computer. It is this speed that has led to our calling regular mail "snail mail."
E-mail also has the advantage of being less expensive, for most people, than regular mail. Many people have access to e-mail for free through their work or school. And while some people may pay for e-mail through an online service, there is no increase in cost relative to the number of messages sent. It is the same price to send one message to one person as it is to send messages back and forth all day or to a hundred people. Finally, if we consider the costs saved in long-distance phone bills in addition to the costs saved in postage, most e-mail users surely come out ahead.
There is no question that e-mail is convenient. It allows us to send the same message to many people at the same time with little more effort than it takes to send a message to one person. When sending multiple copies of a message, we avoid the trouble of photocopying the letter, printing out additional copies, addressing envelopes, and posting the mail. E-mail is also convenient because it lends itself to an informal style that makes composing a message relatively easy; in addition, readers of e-mail tolerate more mistakes than readers of conventional mail, and their tolerance saves us time.
Despite the many benefits that e-mail provides, it is not always appropriate. Before dashing off another piece of e-mail--in our private lives or in the business world--we need to pause and consider whether the post office or a carrier such as Federal Express or UPS might be more fitting.
It would be sad to think that letters from friends might become obsolete. With e-mail, unfortunately, all messages look very much alike, and this sameness removes some of the wonder of getting a message in the first place. We have no handwriting to scrutinize, no perfumed envelope to smell, no colors or textures to enjoy. E-mail is also limited by what we can send. Attached files might let us send a copy of a photo, but we wouldn’t want to put it in a frame. We will never receive an e-mail care package from home or an e-mail pop-up birthday card. For these more personal things we must still rely on regular mail. Besides, opening old computer files is never as much fun as pulling a musty shoebox out of the closet to browse through old letters and photos.
In the business world, as in our personal lives, e-mail is not always an appropriate medium. First, there is the issue of privacy. Because of its electronic transmission in networked systems, e-mail may be accessible to co-workers and supervisors. It’s probably not a good idea to complain about the boss on the company e-mail or to write anything that shouldn’t be shared with strangers or potential enemies. A second problem with e-mail is its informality. For much company business, a certain level of courtesy and formality is desirable; e-mail can seem inappropriate because of its relatively slapdash quality. And finally, because of its speed, e-mail encourages "flaming," sending off rapid-fire emotional messages that can get a businessperson in serious trouble.
While e-mail gives us the ability to send messages with convenience, speed, and little expense, it lacks the personality and authority of regular mail. Luckily, however, we needn’t always choose one over the other. Instead we should take advantage of both, using each to its best advantage: e-mail for quick notes, multiple mailings, and routine business correspondence; regular mail for personal messages and for formal or private business correspondence. Regular mail will always take a bit longer, but at times good things are worth waiting for.
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