Business e-mail communication: some emerging tendencies in register Julio C. Gimenez * 21 Denmark Road, Reading, RG1 5PA, UK Abstract The present paper attempts to investigate whether the spoken nature of e-mail messages has already started to aect business written communication. It looks at the register and context of the language and at the style used in commercial electronic mail. Sixty three business e-mail messages are analysed and later compared with forty business letters from the same company. From the analysis there emerges some evidence to suggest that electronically mediated communication is already aecting business written communication, showing a tendency towards a more ¯exible register. This paper also considers some of the implications that this emerging tendency in interpersonal business communication may have for materials writers, business English course designers and teachers of written communication. # 2000 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The latest research on written business communication has called attention to the need for further investigation into the eects that new technological developments such as the fax and e-mail can have on written interpersonal communication (Barbara et al., 1996; Eustace, 1996; Gains, 1999; Louhiala- Salminen, 1996), stressing the fact that little, if anything, on the topic is mentioned in either coursebooks or specialised journals. A survey of eleven well- known ELT textbooks (Brieger & Comfort, 1992; Brown & Allison, 1991; Bruce English for Specific Purposes 19 (2000) 237±251 0889-4906/00/$20.00 # 2000 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0889-4906(98)00030-1 PERGAMON www.elsevier.com/locate/esp * Corresponding author. Tel.: 0118 9869672 E-mail address: llp96jcg@ reading.ac.uk (J.C. Gimenez).