Subtitled as “The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home”, Send is an authoritative, slim volume designed to address some of the tricky issues that make email a powerful but potentially dangerous tool. David Shipley, Op-Ed Page Editor of the New York Times, and Will Schwalbe, Editor-in-Chief of Hyperion Books, have teamed up to write a guide for email—not just how to write an email, but when and why. Chapters include “How to Write (the Perfect) Email”, “The Six Essential Types of Email”, and even “The Email That Can Land You in Jail”. The authors provide examples, often with the names changed to protect the innocent (and guilty); these range from “I can’t believe they did that” to “Oops, I’ve done that.”

The basic message of the book is “Think before you send”. Email should be simple, it should be effective, it should be necessary, and it should get something done. This book organizes some of the things you already know, and raises other issues that you may or may not have instinctively done up to now. Like so many other things, a bit of thinking and discipline can transform your email from a dull knife into a sharp and effective blade for getting things done; I’d recommend Send as a whetstone for your email habits. ( )

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home is one of those books that belongs on the bookshelf in every home. Within the pages we have the introduction - a real eye opener - in which we learn why we email so badly. This is followed by seven chapters titled: When Should We Email?, The Anatomy of an Email, How to Write (the Perfect) Email, The Six Essential Types of Email, The Emotional Email, The Email That Can Land You in Jail, and last but not least, S.E.N.D.

Each of these chapters holds a wealth of information to guide the reader through the perils of emailing. In When Should We Email we are shown when it is appropriate to send an email and when we should use the alternative means of communication such as phone, instant message, letter (yes, surprisingly some people do still use these) and so on. In The Anatomy of an Email, we learn how to correctly put together an email and address it to the right people. It sounds simple right? I actually learned a great deal from this section and I loved that it teaches the correct use of the CC and BCC fields.

How to Write (the Perfect) Email deals with grammar, punctuation (probably my biggest flaw if I am honest), paragraphs, emoticons and more. In The Six Essential Types of Email we are shown how to better express ourselves when sending emails dealing with Requests, Answers, Informative emails, Emails of Thanks, Emails of Apologies and lastly, Socialising Emails. The Emotional Email is probably my favourite chapter. Cyberspace can be a challenge to communicate within. There are no tones of voice or facial expressions to guide us in understanding the intention of words directed at us. When things get emotional, things can spiral out of control at an extremely fast rate. The Emotional Email helps us to discover how to prevent this from happening.

The Email That Can Land You in Jail covers the many things you can do to protect yourself while using email. Changing subject lines, being specific in email (none of those "Can we talk about that thing" comments), keeping emails that shouldn't be kept, sharing emails that shouldn't be shared, and so on. Lastly, in S.E.N.D we are taught how to use that simply phrase to perform a mental checklist on our email before we use the send button, a process that will save you from many embarrassing or inappropriate moments.

This is a great book that everyone should read. Whether you have been dealing with email for a very short time, or a great number of years, I would be surprised if this book didn't teach you something new. It is written in a very clear and concise manner and is extremely easy to understand, regardless of your computer literacy level. I highly recommend this book. My only regret is that this book didn't come out around 10 years ago. I could have saved myself from so many embarrassments. *grins*.

Also check out the book's website at http://www.thinkbeforeyousend.com/ (they have a hall of shame for bad emails which is pretty funny!). ( )

In their book Send, Shipley and Schwalbe pick apart email as a communication medium, including deciding when it is appropriate and how to use it productively. They also examine email anatomy and provide tips for how to compose more effective messages.

While it was fairly comprehensive, as a seasoned email user I didn’t find very much new information that I didn’t already know or hadn’t already figured out myself. One good point that struck me, however, was the section on Cc:ing and the phenomenon where the more people copied on a request for action, the less likely any one of them is going to act. I’ll be keeping that in mind! ( )

As simple and effective as email can be, it's often misused. For the experienced emailer, this book can help you use Cc, Bcc, subject lines, and Out-of-Office Assistants more effectively. For the beginner emailer, this book explains the basics such as what Cc and Bcc does, what to put in the subject line, and what ALL CAPS really says to your reader. This is must read for anyone who sends or reads emails. ( )

Send covers is the ubiquity of email and some of the temptations of using it for everything. The authors provide a pretty good rationale for avoiding the use of email in a lot of situations. Email has lots of drawbacks. It often lacks context. It’s easy and so often unnecessary. It provides a record of what you wrote. But even while originals of what you wrote may exist, others can alter what you’ve written (intentionally or otherwise) and misrepresent you.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

Wonderful book on how to make your email more effective and work better for you. ENtertaining and well done! ( )

This book was very infomative and not at all boring! It had great advice on proper ways to use emails. Alot of people email but do not know the proper ways it should be used. It doesn't get into the technical hard to understand computer jargon. It puts everything in easy to understand language for those who use computers alot, or are new to computers all together. I would recommend this book to anyone who uses email in their work or home life. ( )

Basic, no nonsense guide to email. The emphasis of the book is on manners and conventions, not technology. There is a lot of discussion of tone, the subtleties of punctuation and use of features such as cc, how to handle awkward situations, and when not to use email. Lots of examples are included, too. Everyone should read this before using email for any kind of business or professional purpose especially. ( )

Interesting read. Lots of practical tips on getting more out of the emails that you write. Not necessarily the technical stuff, more the practical, "English" stuff. Info on what to say / not to say in an email, when is an email appropriate and other good tidbits. An easy read, and a good reference source. ( )

5.07