Although the Internet has increased the speed at which people can communicate and made it much easier to deliver essages, it has not completely or significantly changed the English language. In fact, people write more now using email than they ever have. The Internet has likely increased the preference for people of sending written communication versus using cell phones. This means that there is more need for good writing skills now than ever before. Studies have shown that having good written communication skills is one of the most important and respected traits of professionals.

Today’s business professionals type more than those of the past. Only ten years or so ago, many business leaders wrote messages by hand or had them written by secretaries. Professionals, at least the leaders, would never be seen with a keyboard on his or her desk. Computer literacy today, this includes working knowledge of both Word and Excel, is a basic skill for managers. English literacy is another basic requisite. Having the ability to express his or herself in direct language is required of business professionals today.

There have been three basic yet important changes over the past few years with regards to written communication and how it affects the art of writing letters:

Because of time constraints and information overload, people are forced to work even harder today to capture and keep the attention of their readers. Online marketers can tell you that simply changing a subject line can more than double their responses to email marketing messages. Think about how many emails you delete everyday without even looking at them. How many letters do you open and read, yet fail to respond to because you are too busy with other tasks. Another change is writing that is also related to information overload and time constraints is the shrinking of letter sizes. Now, this does not mean the shrinking of paper sizes, but the actual size of the message. Today’s motto is “the shorter the better”. If you were to take a look at historical letters, say those written by President Lincoln, or books that have information and/or correspondence from the nineteenth century, you would likely be amazed at the elegance and detail of these long letters.