ABSTRACT
Dr Jonathan Fairlamb, efficient research scientist at his government’s National Institute for Standards, receives his mail everyday in his pigeon hole outside the main office. He spends a good hour every morning with his correspondence. For some of it he writes out replies in longhand which he sends to the typing pool to be turned into official looking letters of the type that were sent to him. What with holidays and someone off ill, the typing backlog is now up to 2 weeks, so Professor Realitas will have to wait for a reply to his invitation to give a seminar at his department next month — but what’s the alternative? Other pieces of correspondence he puts into his intermediate in-tray where it soon gets buried under mounds of other non-urgent correspondence and quietly forgotten about. With email, it need not be like that. Dr. Fairlamb is really within almost immediate touch of his clientele. At his computer, receiving electronic mail from enquirers, he could highlight immediate questions of concern, answer salient points, and make his own, on a reply message that includes whatever of the original query he wishes. Furthermore, both query and reply are conveniently filed away on his personal computer, for later reference. For letters which absolutely must go out on the official letterhead, he can now send his draft to the typing pool by email, allowing them to make the necessary modifications very quickly.
