Pause for a moment before you hit Send for the “humorous” e-mail you’re passing along to a vendor, customer or even co-worker.

Why? It might not be so funny after all.

One e-mail sender’s idea of “funny” might sound like caustic sarcasm to the recipient, it turns out. That’s because e-mail readers are likely to misunderstand the tone of a message up to half of the time, research reveals.

So pause before you press Send.

Why is this a problem with e-mail?

According to Psychology Today, e-mail removes the opportunity for humans to “read” each other’s facial expressions and body language. Non-verbal communication makes up between 65% and 93% of human interaction (depends who you ask).

Also, it’s difficult to realize when you’re writing an e-mail that what you’re saying might sound significantly different to the recipient.

Solution: Re-read the e-mail. If you can, read it aloud to see how it sounds. Walk away, come back in a few minutes and read it again. Put yourself in the recipient’s place. How would you react if this e-mail showed up in your inbox?

Tags: communication, customer, e-mail, vendor