Back in 1965, the rock band the Animals recorded the song “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”— way before email existed. But email and the hit song by the Animals share a bond when Eric Burden sings:

“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, Oh, Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”

As email writers, we have good intentions to make our meaning clear. Yet “intended meaning” in this favorite form of business communications can often be misunderstood. Consider the writer who doesn’t take care with language and quickly dashes off an email. Or the email recipient who doesn’t have the benefit of hearing voice inflections or seeing facial expressions, which often provide and clarify the communicator’s meaning.

Here’s an example: A new marketing manager sent an IT manager an email asking how many leads came into the system during the past month. The IT manager replied within moments, “You can find that out yourself.”

The misunderstanding originates because the company installed a new reporting system to track marketing effectiveness. The new marketing manager didn’t know the system’s full capabilities and believed he needed to get the lead information from IT. The IT manager happily reported back that the marketing manager now can run the reports without getting IT involved.

But the marketing manager took offense, thinking the IT manager was blowing him off, in essence saying “don’t bother me, go figure it out on your own.” A more thoughtful email response might have been: “Our new system allows you to run lead reports. If you’re having trouble getting the information you need, let me know and I’ll help.”

While email may be fast and convenient, you still need to take the time to communicate clearly.

Check out this video of the Animals singing “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” There’s some humorous miscommunication here as well: the soundtrack is not synched with the singer’s moving lips.