Luz Villegas 1

Document Analysis Activity

Following Netiquette in an Email Message (Markel 259)

1. How reflectively has the writer conserved bandwidth?

The content of this email is too long.
o The writer replied to another message by including it entirely.
A simple solution to this problem is to paraphrase the context of
the original email or to include a short quotation from it, as
Markel recommends (256).
o The writer left the signature block from the original message
causing the email to extend its bandwidth.
The overall look of this email is too long and too dense with
unnecessary content.

2. How reflectively has the writer stated her purpose?

The purpose is not clearly stated.
o Even though the writer responds to the request on how to write
minutes effectively by providing a series of suggestions, she did
not stated her purpose clearly nor directly.
o She abruptly explained the process of taking minutes without
any preamble; she should clearly introduce her advice before
presenting it explicitly.
The reader may infer the purpose after reading the suggestions she
offered.
The purpose was dimmed by her ranting attitude.

3. How reflectively has the writer projected a you attitude?

The writer projects a very hostile tone.
o Uses uppercase letters to emphasize disagreement and anger.
o Uses harsh language such as STUPID when referring to word-by-
word minute-taking technique.
o Includes sexist phrases like female technical communicator
and gender stereotyping suggesting that taking minutes
should not be a job for a technical communicator but for
exclusively for a female secretary.
o The writer not only expresses a sexist tone but also demerits the
professional job of a secretary; this attitude may be offensive for
that sector of the audience.
Writing style is too informal.
Luz Villegas 2

o Frequent usage of contractions, hyphens, and parenthesis to

express additional or personal comments about the topic.
o Language is too conversational and exhibits a low level of
professionalism.
Inflammatory language characterizes this email as inappropriate and
unethical.

4. How reflectively has the writer made her message easy to read?
The email is not well organized.
o The writer presented the original message, which she is replying
to, at the beginning of the email and her response appears at
the end. Such disorganization disrupts the flow of the reader and
causes confusion on identifying who is the writer or which is the
actual message.
o The writer concludes the email abruptly by just typing her first
name, without any closure statement or any space line to
indicate the end of the message.
o As Markel suggests, long texts can be separated in chunks to
facilitate the readers process of understanding and
remembering information (167).
Disorganization and poor formatting makes this email message hard
to read.

Works Cited

Markel, Mike. Practical Strategies for Technical Communication. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2016. Print.