HIGHLIGHT #3 | 127
HIGHLIGHT | #3
Title
How can we make e-mails more
readable? The role of space
Author(s)
James Hartley
Contact
[email protected]
School
School of Pscyhology
Faculty
Faculty of Natural Sciences
This short article brings together two of my concerns. First, I
suppose I am not alone as an academic in receiving well over
2,000 e-mails a year – and that, as a researcher rather than a
teacher, I get fewer than many of my colleagues. Indeed, some
of my teaching colleagues receive many more (Hartley & Rowley,
submitted). Second, in the 1970s, I did a considerable amount
of research with my colleague and typographic designer, Peter
Burnhill, studying the use of space to clarify instructional text
(Hartley, 1994; Hartley & Burnhill, 1977).
In May of this year I began to worry for some reason about how
all of these e-mails that I received (or a good proportion of
them) could be made easier to read. And the answer that struck
me was simple: get the authors to apply the rules of spacing
developed by Peter Burnhill.
Of course it is easy to suggest this – but would it work? And
how could I test it?
Abstract
Background: Many people receive
e-mails that are more difficult to read
than they should be because they are
poorly spaced.
Aim: To assess how far simple rules for
spacing the text would make e-mails
more readable.
Method: 35 e-mails that were received
by the author and judged difficult to
read were re-spaced following two (N
= 13), and later three simple rules (N =
22) devised by the author. Each of the
revised versions was sent back to the
original author for his/her comments.
Results: 23 comments were received (8
for the two rules versions and 15 for the
3 rules ones). The majority of these
comments were favourable.
Conclusions: Many complex e-mails
can be clarified by spacing the text
according to simple rules.
Keywords
Text layout, e-mails
Stage 1: Two rules for clarifying space
So in late May I began to reply to those e-mails I received that
I thought could profit from a clearer layout. I suggested two
rules for clarifying the text:
1. Start each sentence on a new line (unless it is very short).
2. Give one line-space between paragraphs.
I replied to the authors of dense e-mails suggesting that their
mails would be easier to read if they applied these rules. Initially
I just sent them a re-spaced version of their texts for comment
but, later on, I began to send copies of their originals together
with re-spaced versions. Sometimes I gave their original version
first, and sometimes I did this second, because reading the first
version of a text has a profound effect on reading a second one
(Hartley & Ganier, 2000).
One of the first e-mails that I received in this study was posted to
the School of Psychology and it read - somewhat enigmatically:
Might be of interest to some of you. Please see below
and forward to others who might be interested. More
information on support for students with caring
responsibilities can be found here: (web address)