When you communicate electronically, all you see is a computer screen. You don't have the opportunity to use facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to communicate your meaning; words -- lonely written words -- are all you've got. And that goes for your correspondent as well.
That being said, we realize the difficulties of communicating effectively online can present...
So, below I have compiled a list for those of us who can do better by E more...
... can save some people from a flame-on.
When you communicate electronically, all you see is a computer screen. You don't have the opportunity to use facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to communicate your meaning; words -- lonely written words -- are all you've got. And that goes for your correspondent as well.
That being said, we realize the difficulties of communicating effectively online can present...
So, below I have compiled a list for those of us who can do better by EFFECTIVELY communicating our intents / emotions / real meaning.
If you are joking, use acronyms such as LOL or LMAO or LMBFAO. Hell, even a j/k works wonders.
ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED YELLING! Though caps to EMPHASIZE a word for inflection is appropriate and clearer.
In the LF blogland and forum sections, one can place bold brackets around words to better emphasize their inflection by placing a [ b ] at the beginning of a word and a [ /b ] (no spaces) at the end of the word. Try it, it works.
Important fact to remember:
Although flames often get out of hand, they have a purpose in the ecology of cyberspace. Many flames are aimed at teaching someone something (usually in overstated language) or stopping them from doing something (like offending other people). Flame messages often use more brute force than is strictly necessary, but that's half of the fun. less...
I agree with SueBfriend's posting that Email short cuts have changed the way written word is used (and some times not for the better). I remember seeing a news article on this very thing. The article was about how business are having a difficult time getting quality applicants.The just of the article was that the poor writing ability of most students(caused by Poor writing habits used in righting emails) is a hindrance to their(students) ability of getting good jobs.
I also agree with ozr more...
I agree with SueBfriend's posting that Email short cuts have changed the way written word is used (and some times not for the better). I remember seeing a news article on this very thing. The article was about how business are having a difficult time getting quality applicants.The just of the article was that the poor writing ability of most students(caused by Poor writing habits used in righting emails) is a hindrance to their(students) ability of getting good jobs.
I also agree with ozredhead62 that. It is difficult to discern the subtleties of speech that we as humans get from visual and auditory clues when speaking face to face to a person. I feel it is the lack of these clues that make it difficult some time to discern if a person is joking or just trying to be mean and crude. Well that is my 2 cnts. less...
Yes, I agree that improper typing can be hard to read, and tone can be misread easily. I work at a University. I thought that students applying for Graduate Assistantships would expend time, energy & careful consideration when communicating with the Department they are trying to get hired with! I have been shocked at the amound of students that in their email to me asking questions & sending me information, they abbreviate as if they were texting school friends! :-o
They use u, r, cuz, plez more...
Yes, I agree that improper typing can be hard to read, and tone can be misread easily. I work at a University. I thought that students applying for Graduate Assistantships would expend time, energy & careful consideration when communicating with the Department they are trying to get hired with! I have been shocked at the amound of students that in their email to me asking questions & sending me information, they abbreviate as if they were texting school friends! :-o
They use u, r, cuz, plez, fon, frenz,
I can forgive an occasional misspelled word, but they make no effort to spell more than 1/2 correctly! I keep emailing them back saying I don't understand until they type enough of the message correctly for me! It is one of my Pet Peeves! less...
I've had a number of seemingly offensive rubbish said to me, then when I tell them I don't appreciate their tone, or give them a sarcastic reply, they tell me they were joking. My response is normally along the lines of "No, a joke is actually FUNNY", but a "LOL", smiley or whatever would have made me read it in a different light. (Tho' generally I think it's just been because they are not as bright as they think they are!)
I've had a number of seemingly offensive rubbish said to me, then when I tell them I don't appreciate their tone, or give them a sarcastic reply, they tell me they were joking. My response is normally along the lines of "No, a joke is actually FUNNY", but a "LOL", smiley or whatever would have made me read it in a different light. (Tho' generally I think it's just been because they are not as bright as they think they are!)
As well as block caps being considered rude/shouting it is actually harder to read as we all learn to read by recognising the form/shape of words made with lower case letters. Upper case letters are all the same height and therefore harder to distinguish ... bit of useless informatio$n or you!
I'd also suggest not using text speak. You might just get away with "u" instead of "you" or "4" instead of "for", but get into the realms of "l8r", "gr8" etc and you just look a bit stupid unless you're 14.
Same goes for "da" instead of "the" .... doesn't really pass as intelligent conversation!
Oh and please use a bit of punctuation and break your text up into paragraphs. I've seen some blogs on here that, whilst their content might be witty and brilliant, I can't bear to read because it just rambles on and on.
Not expecting a degree in English grammar, and we can all forgive the odd typo/spelling, but let's all make a bit of effort eh? lol less...
