Lets go back a bit.

Once upon a time someone developed language and the written word. People studied the written word. With the written word, messages could be sent in a new way. The old way used messengers and word of mouth. The sender relied on the messenger to not only relay the words, but also to relay the right emotion attached to the words. Once the written word came on the scene, messengers simply carried the letters. They were no longer responsible for conveying anything. They were merely in charge of delivery.

For a long time the written word rules as the chief means of communication for business, diplomacy, and personal correspondence. Furthermore the media was pen and paper which meant that the writer needed to put real thought into what words they used because they didn't want to waste paper and ink. They also knew that the message could take months to arrive at the other end so the last thing they wanted was a to write a message that was unclear or cryptic. Word-craft was born from this. Writers became skilled at conveying meaning and emotions through the written work. Penmanship also became important. For many, many years this is how most of society worked.

Next came radio, telephones, and loud speakers. This brought a huge change for the world?s communications. Now you could get much of the benefit and speed of a person-to-person meeting without actually being physically together. Inflection was transmitted along with the words so emotion was easier to ?attach? to any communication. There were still writers and writing was still considered important, but now it was being eclipsed by this new technology and the quickening pace of life. We did much of our communication using the telephone for quite a long time, but not nearly as long as we spent using the written word as our cornerstone of communication.

Finally we have our current age. Telephones are here to stay, but now we have email - the written word again, but there?s a crucial change. The media is endless and mostly free (no paper or ink required ? mostly) and the messages take mere minutes to arrive in front of the intended reader. Furthermore the replacement for penmanship is typing. Typing is really fast compared to long hand. You can afford to take less care in crafting your words because they feel somehow less permanent and you can always go back and clarify ? unless, of course, you hit send before going back to be sure things are clear.