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I think it was Shakespeare that said “An email by any other punctuation would not be as obnoxious.”<\/p>\nI think it was Shakespeare that said “An email by any other punctuation would not be as obnoxious.”<\/p>\n
No wait, that was me, just now.\u00a0 Mark Bradford.<\/p>\n
The death of email was greatly exaggerated and predicted many years ago.\u00a0 However, eMail is still with us, and even for those of you who like to communicate via a text overlay on a snapchat of your cat being cute, this still applies.<\/p>\n
You’re a nice, professional person, right?\u00a0 With others, in person you communicate well.\u00a0 You don’t raise your voice unexpectedly, you don’t make quick frightening movements like a cartoonish weasel.\u00a0 \u00a0You don’t fold your arms after making a statement, like a 7 year old that isn’t going to take no for an answer, right?\u00a0 Nor do you run into a room, shout and then run away, leaving only a cloud of smoke vaguely in the shape of you standing there.\u00a0 And, of course you don’t grunt like Tarzan while pointing at things you want.<\/p>\n
But you might be coming across that way in eMails.<\/p>\n
When I say ‘abuse’ I mean over useing, using when not necessary, or ignoring completely.<\/p>\n
Punctuation is a powerful thing – it separates thoughts, it enhances points you make and it even slows down the reader so they better absorb what you are saying.<\/p>\n
If you are asking a question, then one and only one question mark will do.\u00a0 Regardless of how carefully you phrase a question, tacking on multiple question marks changes it dramatically, literally.<\/p>\n
Multiple question marks implore you to please, for the love of God, answer<\/em>.\u00a0 Or, they say that you desperately need to have this question answered – your TPS report request turns into asking them to share their secret cure for cancer.\u00a0 Or, they say that you are so confused that there is no telling what is going to come next.\u00a0 Maybe you’ll jump, maybe you’ll strike and drop that match onto that long line of gasoline leading to the kegs of powder.<\/p>\n Seeing those question marks creates a visceral reaction – like hearing a baby cry or an engine grind that has no oil in it.\u00a0 Yes, you get a faster reaction, but at the expense of the sanity of the reader.\u00a0 You also create a perception of neediness, of having no way to deal with the unknown.\u00a0 If you send this to a client, they will soon look elsewhere.\u00a0 If you send this to a vendor, you’ll move down the list when it comes to taking you seriously as they will judge you as someone who overreacts.\u00a0 Response times will increase.\u00a0 Just from a bunch of extra question marks????????????<\/p>\n Sorry, what?\u00a0 I sort of ignored that last question.<\/p>\n And the other punctuation?\u00a0 The same applies to ending a sentence in an ellipse, or using an exclamation point.\u00a0 Ending a sentence in an ellipse sets the reader up for suspense.\u00a0 It also suggests a bit of arrogance as if they should know better.\u00a0 \u00a0I see you don’t know what I am talking about…<\/p>\n Yes I do.\u00a0 How offensive.<\/p>\n Speaking of offensive CAPS IS YELLING.\u00a0 There are programmers out there that have to have Caps Lock on sometimes.\u00a0 They get a minor pass, switching from their console to a message.\u00a0 But CAPS HAS ALWAYS BEEN YELLING.\u00a0 And just like there’s no crying in baseball, there’s no yelling in business.\u00a0 If you want to highlight a word, underline or bold works great.\u00a0 If I say that the reason the projector is not working is not the power but the bulb, I am being clear.\u00a0 If I say that\u00a0the reason projector is not working is not the power but the BULB, you hear “you moron!” regardless of it I type it.<\/p>\n Equally confusing are messages in which the sender mistakes a comma for a period, especially when combined with the desire to end every sentence with an ellipse of commas,,,\u00a0 \u00a0Wait, is that a super pause<\/em>?\u00a0 Do I get a cup of coffee before I read the rest?<\/p>\n How about three word sentences without punctuation.\u00a0 It forces you to ask again, or try to figure it out while scratching your head, all the while questioning the intelligence of the sender.\u00a0 \u00a0that good right<\/p>\n Huh?<\/p>\n In summary all these incorrect uses of language, communication and punctuation can be very detrimental to not only the communication itself, but to your actual relationships – business or otherwise.<\/p>\n “They’re just really bad in email” is like saying “Does a good job with our copiers but has a bad odor.”<\/p>\n You don’t want that.\u00a0 And, there’s no reason to add any additional stress, anger or negative vibes to your communication.<\/p>\n Um, no, it’s Bradford.\u00a0 It’s not about sucking it up and being overly sensitive.\u00a0 It’s about using an advanced tool we call the written language –\u00a0 in my case English – to communicate with others.\u00a0 You don’t put industrial spotlights in your house where lamps will do, you don’t make speaker phone calls in a library, you don’t use half of the bottle of cologne each day and you don’t use fifteen exclamation points instead of a period!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<\/p>\n Wow, that was over the top, no?\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I’m not suggesting that everyone should have a PhD in English Language and Literature.\u00a0 I’m suggesting to have care in which you use this amazing tool that can communicate and manipulate – intentionally or subconsciously.\u00a0 Try to answer questions completely, be succinct and be aware of what effort the reader has to use to absorb your message.<\/p>\n I hope I did that.\u00a0 And, if not you can send me an email filled with caps and 107 exclamation points.\u00a0 Or you can write your concerns on a hundred dollar bill and send them to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think it was Shakespeare that said “An email by any other punctuation would not be as obnoxious.” No wait, that was me, just now.\u00a0 Mark Bradford. The death of email was greatly exaggerated and predicted many years ago.\u00a0 However, eMail is still with us, and even for those of you who like to communicate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[31,27,24,15,6,33],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balance-wisdom","tag-communication","tag-productivity","tag-self-help","tag-stuff-you-can-do","tag-tips","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tarzan like Jane, or maybe you’re having a stroke?<\/h3>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
What do I do, Mr. Strunk?<\/h2>\n