Email: Speaking vs. writing [SD]

Speaking in person has its benefits (one is immediacy) while speaking in email has its own (one is mediacy: any time you write -- whether in an individual correspondence or for the mass media -- you get to mediate, or process and present, your thoughts more carefully than just spouting them out in real time). Each person has a greater or lesser facility with one or the other, yet I think the trick is not to focus only on one's strong suit but to develop one's skills in all forms of communication -- and then to use them appropriately, whatever the need or setting.