Emoticons and email etiquette

As the technology growing fast, there’s an impact on the communication tools. One of the medium of communications is the e-mail. E-mail has becomes an essential tool for business, social, educational, and personal purpose. Some advantage of the email is that they are quick and easy to get about (Tuffley & Griffith University 2008).

However, with a good thing always comes a bad thing. Even e-mail may cause problems. For example, email can create misperception for the receiver. This is because; the receiver might interpret the email from their own perspective without knowing the sender’s intention. Professor Byron also said that it may damage the relationship (Emoticons and email etiquette 2007). Since there was inability for many people to interpret accurately the intention of the email, Scott Fahlman of the United States created the ‘emoticon’. It is icons which act as emotional markers in electronic communication. However, emoticons also have some negative issues.

There are some negative impact appeared from the raise of emoticons (Walther and D’Addario, 2001). The argument is that it may shift the message in the direction of negative element. Zimmerman and Perkin (cited in Shriver 1997, p.373) stated that visual messages need to be revised depending on the local culture.

Different culture has different perception. People make meaning as members of a particular culture, a particular society, and a particular community (Schirato & Yell, 1996). Therefore, writers need to think about the cultural issues first, they should think of the readers of the writing. It is important to understand email etiquette. This is to minimize the problem of misinterpretation and misunderstanding in the publishing.
Reference

Emoticons and email etiquette 18 October 2007, ABC radio national, the media report, viewed 6 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm

Schirato,T & Yell,S 1996, ‘ Chapter 3: Communication as Social practices,’ Communication and cultural literacy ,Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, New South Wales

Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York

Tuffley, D & Griffith University 2008, ‘Email Etiquette (Netiquette)’viewed 8 June 2009, http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~davidt/email_etiquette.htm

Walther and D’Addario 2001, ‘The Impacts of Emoticons on Message Interpretation in Computer-Mediated Communication’ Social science computer review, Sage Journal Online, viewed 7 June 2009, http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/324