Description

Jen Robinson's Message to M C Morgan:

• Informal greeting "Hello there!"
• uses links
• uses a sign-off
• signs off with "Best Regards" and first and last name
• uses an abbreviation "MLIS"
• uses @ and & symbol
• 3 paragraphs
• frequent use of sentences of 15+ words
• uses parenthesis, semi-colons, dashes, slashes, exclamation points
• first paragraph longer than the others
• use of caps "SO MANY"
• Heading contains From, Subject ("ENGL 3177/5177: Blogs and Wikis and my blog", date, to
• technical language "flickr," "myspace," "friendster," "librarything," and "deli.ci.ous."

M C Morgan's Message to Jen Robinson

• heading contains from, subject ("Re: ENGL 3177/5177: Blogs and Wikis and my blog", date, to
• informal greeting "Hi Jen -"
• use of abbreviations: "LUC," "YALit?," "N Minnesota"
• 3 paragraphs
• sign off "Luck" and first name (not capitalized)
• "Luck" is at the end of the last paragraph, a line is skipped, then there is his signature
• original message from Jen Robinson embedded
• use of slang "newbies"
• use of dashes, elipsis, parenthesis, asterisks
• includes signature at the bottom
  • signature includes: name, title, location, school email address and phone number, wiki url, and 3 choices for posting the message in a blog: "bloggable," "ask first," and "do not blog"
    • bloggable is checked

Analysis

This exchange of emails between Jen Robinson and M C Morgan is written in a slightly formal tone, at least more formal than what Baron's categorization of email messages -- as informal in language style, often more informal than spoken conversations. Robinson opens her message with "Hello There," which isn't exactly formal, but it isn't something that's usually said when two people meet face-to-face. Parts of her message that seem to be informal include her reference to her "ninja vanity" search, the use of caps, "SO MANY," the use of symbols and abbreviations "@," "MLIS," "YA," and "&." She also uses parenthesis as little conversational sidenotes. However, also uses a somewhat formal tone in the content of the writing itself. She uses compound sentences and goes into academic uses of weblogs and wikis. She also ends her message with "Best Regards," and signs off with her first and last names.

M C Morgan's response seems to be written in an informal style, as well. He begins the message with, "Hi Jen," something that would be said in a face-to-face interaction. He uses elipses, parenthesis, asterisks for emphasis, slang terms, and abbreviations. He also signs off with his first name only, and it isn't capitalized.

I would say that both of these messages seem informal but not as informal as Baron writes that most email exchanges are. Baron also brings up the topic of using a public face while writing emails. I can't tell if Robinson was thinking about whether anyone except for Morgan would read her message, but it does seem that she spent some time thinking about what to include. It seems obvious that Morgan knew that it was possible that other people would be able to read his response, as he checked the "bloggable" box on the bottom of his message, giving consent for Robinson to publish his message on the web.

Interpretation

This exchange of email seems to be between two people who know about each other but who don't know each other on a personal level. Morgan most likely found Robinson's blog years ago through a blog search of people in London and later referenced it in his weblogs and wikis course, perhaps having students read and evaluate it. Apparently, Robinson originally found Morgan's course page for weblogs and wikis while searching for mention of her name on the internet and more recently revisited it while looking at her deli.cio.us. bookmarks. I'm assuming that he knows more about her than she does about him, as he had access to her day-to-day life in London while she only makes mention of his course wiki. However, she may know more about him, as she may have done some searches on him and found his weblog and read that. So, to them, it probably doesn't seem like they're writing to complete strangers, though they haven't ever met. This may play a role in the level of formality that they use in addressing each other.

Anyway, she asks him if he is still having students read her blog, then goes on to say that she doesn't believe that he would because of the increasing number of blogs. She gives him the address to the site where her old blog is archived, as well as the url to her new blog, about library science, seemingly to draw attention to a topic that she thinks he'll be interested in. She catches him up with what she's been doing since the days that he read about in her blog and expresses how good it's been to have seen the evolution of "personal expression on the web." She wishes him luck with his courses and expresses her happiness that formal institutions are promoting the study of web rhetoric. She signs the message with her first and last names, which makes it more apparent that they don't have a close relationship with each other.

In his response, Morgan seems casual and somewhat informal. His greeting is "Hi Jen -" rather than using something like "Dear Jen." He uses asterisks to emphasize the word "can" and the slang word "newbies." In the beginning of the message, Morgan expresses surprise that he is being contacted by someone whose blog he read back in 2000 or 2001. He informs her that he read the blog because she was writing about the same area in London that he had spent time in before and he was interested about other long-term visitors there. When he says, "other long-term visitors," it seems that snoopbloggyblog was not the only blog that he was reading about people in London. He recalls a post from around June of 2001 in which she wrote about being in Paddington Station about the time that he was going through on his way to Heathrow.

He switches subjects in the next paragraph and focuses on what Robinson had said about the evolution of blogs and how they're being turned into writings about the authors' professions rather than a day-to-day account of their lives. His mention of this gives the two some common ground which they could discuss in further detail, if they desired.

Then he gives Robinson good wishes as well and tells her that he is going to give the url to her new blog to some other faculty. With that statement, he may be saying that he personally isn't very interested in her new blog, but he may know some people who would be. He seems to be more interested in learning about her experiences in London, rather than what she knows about social networking. This idea is strengthened when he later says, "if you're ever passing through N Minnesota, let me know. We can compare London notes." At the end of the message, he says, "luck." This may be a common phrase in England, and he's writing it because time in London is something that they have in common, or maybe he was just trying to be casual. He signs it with his first name in lower-case letters, which also seems casual.

Evaluation

To me, the exchange of emails seems to be a weird meeting of two people who have followed (stalked?) the other's lives a bit. Morgan probably read Robinson's blog because she was writing about something familiar and interesting to him (long-term visitors in London) and Robinson probably looked into Morgan's course in weblogs and wikis for the same reason (social networking, blogs, and wikis, maybe).

The email from Robinson to Morgan seems to be a plug for her current blog. She mentions that the blog that he had read and used for his course is no longer being updated, but she has a new one that deals with more technical topics rather an account of her life in London. She doesn't think that he is still having students read her blog because there are "SO MANY" more blogs out ther now, but she makes sure to give him the url to her new blog, in case he wants to read one more.

If her intent was to get her new blog noticed, Robinson succeeded because in Morgan's response, he wrote that he would pass on the url to some faculty who teach YALit? -- unless he was just writing that to be nice.