3 Chapter 3: Technical & Textual Design Choices of Email Systems

☞ Authorial commentary is italicized. 

We access emails via browser tabs, desktop applications, and phone apps on a more or less constant basis. Reading and drafting email are processes that affect most of our professional and academic lives. That makes the technical and design elements that shape those processes especially critical to how we engage with email messages.

Server-based email access makes the platform used to access messages on the server- an app on a phone, a browser tab, or a standalone program- the way writers and readers of emails engage with message text. These platforms operate as a ‘shell’ around the raw email message itself, which often encodes multimedia elements, textual elements like font or color, and the technical details of the message itself in ways that email platforms can easily display but which appear odd to readers when presented in their raw state. This is akin to looking at the code that makes up a website instead of the site itself- it’s the same information, just one version is the code itself and another is the version as viewed with a web browser.

Generally, Gmail and Microsoft Outlook are likely the largest email platforms in use for desktop computers. Gmail tends to be employed for personal use or in professional/academic contexts where Google’s other GSuite products are heavily used. Outlook tends to be more popular in business/professional contexts.

☞ The above statements are essentially guesses- I was unable to find reliable information about which and under what circumstances different email platforms are used, so I’m basing that statement on my own personal experiences.

However, it’s worth remembering that modern email systems are entirely server-based, so users can choose which platform they want to use to access their email messages from the server. For example, Thunderbird, a desktop program, can be used with just about any email server (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.).

Email platforms offer a large number of ways to shape email messages technically and through the way they appear, but those which are most relevant to email writers and readers include address options, delegated accounts, read receipt requests, file attachments, message templates, email signatures, and font/formatting choices.

☞ This list includes the items that both aren’t overly technical and can make a functional difference in the pragmatics of an email message- as such, it’s something of a subjective list.

Address Options: To, CC, & BCC

Email writers can opt to select who their message is sent to using a variety of options, which are generally split by the visibility of the addressee to other recipients and the pragmatic intention of the sender. To: is usually the default addressee of an email message. Carbon Copy (CC) sends the same, identical message, but is usually used to indicate that the addressee isn’t the primary audience or is just ‘being looped in’. Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) sends the same message, but does not include the identity of BCC’d recipients.

In short, To: & CC recipients are visible to all message receivers, while BCC’d addresses aren’t visible to other recipients. This presents an interesting use case when emailing large groups of people, since BCC’d recipients can’t be included in reply-all messages since they don’t appear as recipients.

When emailing groups of people with the same message, it is always good practice to BCC recipients to avoid a confusing and irritating situation where replies keep being sent to all addressees.

☞ To help make this point, I;ve written a horrible short poem:

When you’re emailing in a large group

Don’t get in the soup

Quote the server administrator-

BCC that list, fine email creator

☞ And now an atrocious haiku:

Reply-all stinky

Group email thread disaster

Shut up stupid dings

Delegated Accounts

Most email platforms allow for delegating account access to multiple people. Delegated accounts are often used for departmental or institutional emails which can involve emails addressed to a larger group, or, in rarer cases, an individual’s email account which is managed by a team of people. Delegated accounts typically allow for authorized users to view, send, and manage an email account jointly, but usually need to be set up by someone who can authorize multiple user account access.

Read Receipt Requests

Read receipts tend to be more common in digital messaging platforms newer than email which are skewed towards mobile use. Examples include iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and similar messaging platforms which exclusively function with chat users on the same platform. These kinds of messaging platforms were created after mobile phone technology became prevalent, and tend to have been built from the ground up with encryption, a strong capacity to handle multimedia, video chatting, livestreaming & other social features, and what amounts to essentially seamless read receipts. Read receipts appear to users without effort within the message itself – “The words sent, delivered, or read appear next to the time stamp indicating the stage of the message in reference to the receiver.” (Earle, 2018, p. 1)

For email platforms, read receipts have variable functionality, since they generally rely on whatever email platform the message recipient is using to process the read receipt using a Message Disposition Notifications (MDN) function. Not all email platforms work with MDNs, and users or server administrators can also opt to disable them.

Besides MDN functionality, some emails will include HTML code or load a tiny image file from a server controlled by the sender. The details of that outside server’s activities serve as a somewhat sneaky way to produce the same effect as read-receipts, so long as the recipient’s email platform allows for outside image loading or code execution. That practice does present something of a security risk for users.

File Attachments

Besides email itself being created by merging a file transfer program to a messaging platform by Ray Tomlinson (Partridge 2008), email has had the ability to be used to send files outside local networks since 1976 (Feinler & Vittal, 2022). Sending files, therefore, is baked into the DNA of email technology and email platforms all allow for attaching and sending files as a major part of their functionality. However, email, as an older technology originally developed when file sizes were miniscule compared to today’s digital offerings, has never been particularly good at being used to transfer files.

Modern email platforms often restrict file size by default, and server administrators can also set allowable attachment size. To avoid these issues, users typically either opt to use platforms specifically designed for file transfer (such as Dropbox), or email platforms will automatically opt to swap sending the actual file with a substituted link to a cloud-based service of some kind. Personal Gmail accounts automatically do this for any file larger than 25mb (Google, n.d.-a), which both reinforces the utility of Google Drive service (like Google Drive) and can unintentionally surprise recipients with a link in lieu of an expected file.

For individuals who are located in (or who are communicating with recipients in) countries where the internet is subject to governmental censorship or sanctions, this practice can be especially frustrating since email messages may work, but the linked cloud service may not. For example, Google provides details about areas where their paid products are unavailable, but those guidelines seem to be based on sanctions (Google, n.d.-b) and not on a comprehensive list of countries where governmental censorship directly interferes or prevents access.

☞ Figuring out exactly what services are available where, and which ones will work reliably can be difficult and requires researching country-by-country. As an example, I’m personally aware from living abroad (years ago) that certain Google products wouldn’t work in certain countries. These issues can change rapidly as technical workarounds, political situations, and technological advances all shift.

Message Templates

Most email platforms used in the professional world include some way to generate an email template to make drafting repetitive messages a bit easier. This feature is especially important when writing in a professional role or on behalf of an institution, since it would make sense that senders will need to repeatedly send the same messages with the same details. This functionality provides a nice time-saver, and with the increased efficiency of a template, the template itself can be iteratively improved or changed to produce a better result.

A similar functionality is a ‘mail merge’, where a database of information is used in tandem with a message template to mass-send more customized emails to multiple recipients.

☞ I’ve done exactly one mail merge in my life, and for someone who is fairly technically savvy I found it to be absolutely befuddling. I generally stick with message templates or BCC’d mass emails instead, but mail merge does have more advanced capabilities like automatically adding names from a database, changing certain details, etc.

☞ Be aware that as of the time of writing, message template formatting gets a bit weird when combined with email signatures using Gmail. Be sure to check before sending.

Email Signatures

Email platforms universally present a message’s data relating to the sender or recipient’s name alongside the message itself. However, that information doesn’t provide context which is often important to the pragmatic meaning of an email.

For example, what is the specific job title of the person you’re communicating with? What institution do they work for? Besides the information in the domain portion of their email address, does their message contain details that effectively reinforces the identity they are trying to convey (a professional expert at Acme Incorporated, a smart student in a competitive medical school, a politician who cares about seniors, etc.)

Email signatures are chunks of text which are appended automatically to the bottom of email messages without the sender needing to manually add them. Email signatures are often a hallmark of institutional association, and include contact information, a job title, the correct spelling of a name. Many institutions specify the exact design and content of email signatures for their staff, serving to further reinforce institutional identity through uniform design and a shared professional identity. Email signatures can be automatically set up with almost any email platform in the account settings.

☞ This is a personal opinion, but email signatures on personal accounts contradict what I see the point of an email signature to be- conveying useful contact information but also strongly emphasizing institutional identity & role.

☞ Double check that your email signature- which appears on every message you send- looks correct by emailing yourself.

Font/Formatting Choices

Email writing is fundamentally a text-based medium. Despite any number of multimedia options, emails make meaning and express communication between sender and receiver via written text.

How that text appears doubtlessly plays a significant role in the pragmatics of the message. Most email platforms use a default font when drafting, but allow for significant flexibility to adjust how the text looks. However, most email platforms use differing default fonts when drafting. That practice makes text which is copied & pasted into email drafts very noticeable since the font, line & character spacing, and color can often be different.

☞ People who copy & paste AI generated text are often caught out by this. Besides AI tools’ absolute inability to do pragmatics, the font of the text dumped into an email draft is often very noticeable based on the formatting alone. This illustrates a wider issue- copying and pasting creates new fonts and formatting in a text which can be distracting. The solution is to get into the regular habit of pasting text without formatting- Command-Option-Shift-V for MacOS and Ctrl + Shift + V on a PC.

For writers more used to other text genres, paragraph spacing can be a way authors fulfill expectations, demonstrate effort, or flesh out a section or idea that needs supporting details. However, longer paragraphs take longer to read, which can be confusing or annoying to recipients. Furthermore, emails are such a core component of the modern workplace that they can be a significant source of stress by soaking up time- which is always in short supply. Long paragraphs take more effort and time to untangle by recipients, which means they must invest more of both, which can certainly affect the pragmatics of the message in a negative way.

Accordingly, email writing often involves comparatively aggressive paragraph spacing- sometimes as little as a single sentence- to attempt to make messages shorter, more clear, and to ruthlessly minimize the processing needed by time-crunched recipients.

This aggressive paragraph spacing and a focus on shorter messages to reduce recipient processing can also be used to highlight particularly important sections of an email message. An alternative method to signal the importance of a sentence or phrase is via formatting and font choices made by the author. Making text appear different is effective in drawing attention, and email platforms all allow for a wide array of font and color choices, which includes text colors and highlighting or making the text bold, italic, or underlined. Judicious use of these formatting tools is important- if everything is bold, nothing is marked to the reader as especially important, and the resulting text may appear unprofessional, odd, or off-putting.

☞ Font, formatting, and paragraph spacing can be an effective technique in email writing, but remember to always consider- ‘what identity am I trying to convey to my recipient?’ Judicious use of these tools can highlight competence and reflect a writer’s concern for the recipient’s easier processing of a message. However, overdoing these formatting tools can have the opposite effect.

References:

Earle, K. (2018). Attributions online: An examination of time stamps, read receipts, and ellipses in text-based communication. (Publication No. 10789250 [Masters dissertation, North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science]. ProQuest.

Feinler, E. & Vittal, J. (2022). Email innovation timeline. Computer History Museum, 102806104, https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102806104/

Google. (n.d.-a). Send attachments with your Gmail message. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6584

Google. (n.d.-b). Countries or regions where Google Workspace is available. https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/support/troubleshooting/countries-or-regions-where-google-workspace-is-available

Partridge, C. (2008). The technical development of Internet Email. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 30. 3-29. 10.1109/MAHC.2008.32