Emoticons and Email Ettiquette

Dear readers, do you know that people around the world churn out millions and millions of emails and text messages a day?

According to McKay (2009), of all Internet activities, email is the most popular as there are almost 88% of all Internet users use email.

One problem with email is missed signals as the written message doesn't come with facial expressions or gestures (Dynamoo.com 2009). So, lots of peoples do not have an idea on how to write and interpret email they receive.

Emoticons
Based on the article-Emoticon and email etiquette, the inability of some people to accurately interpret emotions or intentions in email has led to invention of the 'emoticon'.

Professor Fahlman from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, came out with smiley face that could be simply made by typing a colon or a hyphen for people to accurately interpret emotions or intentions of email.



According to Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006, p. 16), picture or symbol can represent the meaning of text. Now, they are everywhere, and there's not just the smiley face, there's a whole range of little icons designed to be used for online communication.

Some email account like Yahoo, G-mail does actually provide the emotion for users to insert while sending email. Supportive to this, Schirato & Yell (1996, p.109) stated that “for any text to be recognizable and readable it must draw upon already established and shared set of meaning”.

Email etiquette
There are many etiquette guides and many different etiquette rules. Some rules will differ according to the nature of your business and the corporate culture. The following tips should help you avoid some of the pitfalls (Emailreplies.com 2009):

1. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation.
2. Not writing in CAPITALS.
3. Use proper structure & layout.
4. Do not copy a message or attachment without permission.
5. Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT.
6. Keep your language gender neutral.
7. Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters.

My verdict
In my opinion, the creative of emotions used in email play an important role to avoid misunderstanding in message. However, this should not be overused and people should not heavily depending on it. This is because true feeling by face-to-face communication is all the time a best preference.

Likewise, good email etiquette should always practice by people especially the younger generation. On the other hand, a company needs to implement etiquette rules to shows their professionalism, efficiency and protection from liability.

References
ABC.Net.Au 2007, ‘Emoticon and email etiquette’, updated 18 October 2007, viewed 7 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm

Dynamoo.com 2009, Dynamoo's Email Etiquette, viewed 7 June 2009,
http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/etiquette.htm

Emailreplies.com 2009, Email etiquettee, viewed 7 June 2009,
http://www.emailreplies.com/

Kress, G & Van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘Reading images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, Australia, pp. 16-44

McKay, DR 2009, Email Etiquette: Part 1: Why Is It Important?, Abour.com, viewed 7 June 2009, http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_etiquette.htm

Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, ‘Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction’, Allen & Unwin, NSW, pp. 90-117