Geezers Wax Eloquent Via E-Mail:)

Saturday’s editorial pages had two ironically related bookends: on the left an editorial (“E-moting by E-Mail”) and on the right “Geezer at 40? Yes, if You’re Job-Hunting,” by Arlene Schindler (Voices). The irony lay in the hidden cause-effect relationship between the two phenomena being described and decried. The casual and inappropriate use of e-mail is, I believe, a direct result of the flawed education received, generally, by the younger types ruling the work force, at least according to Schindler.

As teaching the proper--and elegant and powerful--use of the English language is gradually relaxed in our schools, the discipline needed to use e-mail properly--and elegantly and powerfully--is becoming rarer and rarer. The same writing skills that a solid education (I’m talking junior high school, not graduate school) should provide, along with a serious work environment (I’m talking companies run by adults, not the children described by Schindler), would give all the discipline needed to write good e-mail correspondence.

No SCREAMING CAPITAL LETTERS. No cutesy :( icons. Just good English (or any other language) used in correspondence as it has been for generations. Carelessness is the problem; poor education and lax standards are the cause--not e-mail itself.

J. Marc Mushkin

(Junior Geezer at 43)

Irvine