An article I recently read described the way we communicate
through our use of punctuation. I started examining how I use punctuation in my
texts and emails and concluded that it is vastly different than how I write.
Punctuation marks began in such a purposeful way. Probably
their most important benefit was to cue the reader (or speaker) to slow down
via the comma, colon, and period. The words alone had the job of conveying tone and
attitude.
Things have changed so much with texting. We use symbols:
dashes, ellipses, the question/exclamation mark, parentheses, and emoticons to
convey meaning.
A simple ?! might invoke a questioning-and-excited-to-hear-more tone.
Such as how was your date?!
… implies I don’t want to be overbearing
but I need more information please.
As in just checking in about your interview …
Ever the teacher noticing a typo after clicking send, I will
put * in charge as editor.
I’m sure you’ve got your own endearing ways of adding
emotion to your texts and emails and I’d love to hear them (perhaps I may flavor
my eCommunications in new and creative ways).
But it’s Susan from Bucks County, PA who really gave me
pause to consider punctuation. She “subscribes to the notion that at birth, we
are given only five exclamation points to use in our lifetime.”
What would be your five???!!! :)
I love this post! Going to share it with the teachers at my school. But only five exclamation points- that's my favorite punctuation mark. Yikes** (don't want to use up one of my five).
ReplyDeleteI love this post! Going to share it with the teachers at my school. But only five exclamation points- that's my favorite punctuation mark. Yikes** (don't want to use up one of my five).
ReplyDeleteYour post made me think of how I add the original emoticons to student papers, by adding smiles and hearts and fun little drawings in addition to my comments.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post; an ode to the power of punctuation. It would be interesting to have students deconstruct text messages and how punctuation is used to induce surprise, anger and happiness :) Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll bring up the notion of an "exclamation mark allowance" with my students. I go crazy when one word is followed by a full row of them. I get it. Enough already!
ReplyDeleteIf I only had 5 wouldn't last a day! (oops used one already) lol It's true tho - so m,uch has changed in how we communicate - so many no just text.
ReplyDelete