I think we've all been in this sort of situation before. I guess if you communicate long enough it's bound to happen. The only thing you can do is correct your mistake as soon as you find out and hope people realize that typos happen ;)
ophelia_chong
· 1 year ago
I have been through that before and will again. This simple sentence written without tonal effect can go one of two ways: "Your brother is sick!" Now if you soften the "sick" then he's ill, if you emphasize "sick" with a high note on the "K" then you are saying he's really cool.
Back in the days of snail mail and love letters, you had to put all your emotion into the presentation of your note, or else you got dumped. As much as I hate emoticons, sometimes they come in handy when you want to make sure it's a "happy" note and not a "mad" note.
:O)
Maggy Young
· 1 year ago
Steve you are so right, the TONE conveys the true meaning of a communication. This is esp. important to remember now that email has replaced a tremendous amount of phone calls, particularly for business. It also applies to leaving messages with others. I once left a message with an estate agent's secretary, like 'Any news, please ring me back' and added to be helpful 'if not, don't bother' and then changed this to 'don't worry' as 'don't bother' without tone could have been taken the wrong way.
sbspalding
· 1 year ago
Thanks but the credit for this article belongs to Greg.
Tone is extraordinarily important online and even with things like emoticons we still have a hard time conveying it. I think that is a part of the reason that the dialogs we have online are so much less dynamic. Things like sarcasm and intonation, which make all the difference in the world, fall flat.
All Comments
This simple sentence written without tonal effect can go one of two ways:
"Your brother is sick!"
Now if you soften the "sick" then he's ill, if you emphasize "sick" with a high note on the "K" then you are saying he's really cool.
Back in the days of snail mail and love letters, you had to put all your emotion into the presentation of your note, or else you got dumped. As much as I hate emoticons, sometimes they come in handy when you want to make sure it's a "happy" note and not a "mad" note.
:O)
It also applies to leaving messages with others. I once left a message with an estate agent's secretary, like 'Any news, please ring me back' and added to be helpful 'if not, don't bother' and then changed this to 'don't worry' as 'don't bother' without tone could have been taken the wrong way.
Tone is extraordinarily important online and even with things like emoticons we still have a hard time conveying it. I think that is a part of the reason that the dialogs we have online are so much less dynamic. Things like sarcasm and intonation, which make all the difference in the world, fall flat.