Re: e-mail symbols

["Richard W. Tarara" <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

I disagree with almost everything Leigh says below.  Even if we could all
write with the clarity and wit of a Mark Twain there is little or no
guarantee that the readers would understand that wit.  I've seen a number
of serious 'flame wars' erupt (mostly on other lists) because the READER
didn't understand the irony, sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek, or other clever
comment of the writer.  E-mail is supposed to be a spontaneous and quick
form of communication and therefore few writers will review and edit their
words and very few will work at it enough to produce 'literary' output. 
Therefore the addition of 'emoticons' ARE a great help in getting the
proper tone across in an efficient way.

The 'IMO' has a definite place as well--but in my experience there are very
few with HOs.  Many of the e-mail lists and discussions tend to be of a
technical or at least a professional nature.  In most cases people are
asking for and giving 'professional' responses which the readers (and never
forget the hundreds of lurkers on this and most other lists) may well take
to have some value and some truth--having come from an 'expert' in the
field.  While overused (by me as well), the IMO does flag the fact that the
following statements are not 'known to be true' by the writer.  Again, keep
in mind that e-mail IS a new form of communication and has been evolving as
such.  It is not reasonable,   IMO ;-)   to demand or expect traditional
standards and forms of prose. 

BTW: I have seen a list of the emoticons and suggest a search on the WEB
for 'emoticon' may turn it up.

Rick

----------
> From: Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>
> > Does anyone have a list of the symbols people use at the end of their
> > messages:  (;  .)   (= ........?  My wife wants to teacher her
> > middle school students about email and I haven't seen a list to
> > give her.
>
> My daughter calls them "emoticons". They are intended for use by the
> group of people whose prosaic abilities range from the inarticulate
> through the illiterate. It should be noted that competent writers of
> the English language are capable of conveying such information as
> emoticons are intended to convey in well constructed English prose,
> even in colloquial forms which need not consist entirely of complete
> sentences. I'm no Mark Twain, but he didn't use emoticons and neither
> shall I. Though I will likely never rival Mark Twain I will keep his
> writing as an ideal to inform my own efforts.
>
> The best thing your wife can do for her students (and the thing my
> wife and I did for all of our children) is to encourage and commend
> their use of proper English. Email is a wonderful medium for practice
> of the necessary skills. I'm glad she is doing it, but she should
> use the attraction of email to the benefit of her students. She
> should not confer an implicit approval on this device by codifying it.
>
> Leigh
>
> (One phrase I never use in my postings unless it is absolutely
> necessary is "in my opinion" or, worse, "IMHO". It should be evident
> that what I write is merely my opinion, as in the present case. It
> would be an insult to my intended readers' intelligences, and an
> expression of my own low self esteem, to state that explicitly.)