Wriging

I generally use e-mail. No special reason, I just think it looks nicer, plus it's nice to see a hyphen every once in a while.

I use e-mail, that's just how I always did it.

I'm more focused on the very British spelling of favor in your post. As many times I see the traditional English alternatives, I don't know that I'll ever get used to them.

@ryanarrowsmith: I feel the same about US ones and damn US biased spell checkers ;) It's very frustrating being english and getting told all the time by your computer, you are spelling things incorrectly. I am not a grammar police or spelling guru by any long shot, but just for once I'd like to see the actual language english be true to it's form. It seems odd we live in a world where the US english is the accepted norm of spelling in most cases. I'm not talking people - you spell how you are taught after all. Surely though an english spell checker should be exactly that.

You can add words to your dictionary karmatosed. ;)

I prefer email. Don't quite know why, but maybe because it's shorter.

Oh gosh, let's not get into the AmE/BrE thing again. I realise we could fill a whole catalogue of favoured spellings between the nations, were we to centre a discussion on it, but it's not one of my favourite topics, so let's put an end to this dialogue.

Hear that? That's the sound of a thousand American dictionaries exploding.

Email, no hyphen. While I'm not opposed to "e-mail", the fact of the matter is that the term has been in the general lexicon for quite some time and as such can lose the hyphen without losing any understanding. (Also, this follows the development pattern of works which go from separate (to morrow) to hyphenated (to-morrow) to being just one word (tomorrow).)

Frankly, my concern isn't which you use, it's that you're consistent about it within a document. (I can't tell you how often I see people perpetually vacillating between the two. Annoy much?)

I use email, and there is no particular reason why.

I use email because it's faster to type. I don't like reaching all the way to the top of the keyboard. So call me lazy!

I used to use e-mail, but I don't anymore. Mainly just because its the same reason I tell people to google things instead of going to Google and searching. People use it so often nowadays that you don't really need to be specific that it is "electronic mail."

I've always gone with Email. At least, I think I have. Adding the hyphen just seemed unnecessary to me. I'd have to agree with Gnorb though, consistency is important, particularly within one document. Make a decision and stick with it.

I use "email" simply because it's shorter. There was a time in my rather extended online career (not! psyche!) where I did use "e-mail." Yeah--essentially I'm lazy like alisa.

I use email, ecommerce, ebook, etc.

I think that traditional handbooks of style have a lot of catching up to do, so if you're looking for a good one that takes technology into consideration check out Bill Walsh's The Elephants of Style.

Of course, I happen to disagree with him on the email point.

i use gmail

I've gotten so used to using the dash on the number pad, instead of the one beside the 0, so its a pain for me to hit it. I use email ;)

I think that the reason why the hyphen disappeared is because the word has simply become "mainstream", and is now a part of our vocabulary.

We don't see it as "Electronic Email", we simply see it as email.

A similar thing happened with telefax which simply became fax.

@Griffith - Actually, it started out as 'Facsimile' then became fax. Telefax was originally telefacsimile.

Walsh's argument is that we should call it e-mail just like we call other items t-shirts and x-rays, not tshirts and xrays. Of course, neither of those start with the ultra-convenient vowel 'e'.

email - I never can get my head around when you should/shouldn't use hyphens. Plus, it's just quicker to type.

I refer to it sometimes as:
e.mail
email
e-mail

I never capitalize it. Never, I don't care... I don't.

I personally always use "email" but I had a bugger of a time with it when I worked at organizations that followed the AP Stylebook because then anything that was going to get published needed to use the hyphen. So my emails were always filled with a mix of "email" and "e-mail" :)

I have so missed these kinds of questions in the weeks I've been away on vacation. I don't think I've ever used the hyphen, and I seldom see it. I wonder if it's a British thing.

I use "email". When email first came out, it was a different story, because the hyphen indicated the term was a shorter form of two separate words - "electronic" and "mail". Now its used so often, it has come to be considered one word.

What about eMail? :P

If I ever use the hyphen I'll do "E-Mail", otherwise the capitalization looks screwy to me.

When I'm writing something somewhat official (even my blog most of the time) it's e-mail, but on forums, IM, social sites, it's email. I try and always keep it the same throughout, though.

The dictionary shows both...