ABSTRACT
Email is currently the most common means of academic communication, nearly replacing many written forms, from jotted notes within a lab group to formal letters. Thus, effective email communication is essential to academic success. Formal email, including apologies, requests, and communication between author and editor, must consider the relative positions of sender and recipient and the degree of imposition on the recipient. Five factors are identified that contribute to email success, including using terms of address to negotiate relationship, justifying your request, including the proper amount of information, reducing imposition, and paying attention to detail. These are related to various sociolinguistic and pragmalinguistic principles including relationship, cooperation, clarity, politeness, and intelligibility. Expectations in many of these areas differ for Western and Asian scholars. All five factors are also related to writing principles described elsewhere in the book, including fitting in, argument structure, and the 7Cs of Change.
