How to Make Your Message Meaningful

Sometimes, the most difficult thing in writing e-mails is

to express your emotions and be sure their true meaning

won’t be misinterpreted.(1) There are some commonly used 1. understood wrongly

ways to make your message meaningful.

If you want to give mild (2) emphasis, you enclose it in 2. not great or extreme

asterisks (*). For example: I *said* that I was going last

Thursday. or I said that I was going last *Thursday*.

Or you can also capitalize the first letter only to give light

emphasis (3). E.g. I thought my brother was There… 3. extra force given to a word

Strong emphasis is expressed by using all capital letters or phrase

and exclamation (4) marks (!). E.g. NO!!! I’ll NEVER 4. a short sound, word or

do that!!!! phrase spoken suddenly

If you extremely excited and really need to emphasize to express an emotion

something, you can write it like this: NO!!! I’ll

>>!!**NEVER**!!<< do that!!!! But, don’t use this too

often, excepting some extreme cases.

E-mail messages also lack (5) facial expressions and body 5. have none or not enough

language. While you are unable to accompany (6) your words 6. go together with something

with hand or facial gestures (7), there are some ways to else

describe it in your message. These include “smileys” 7. movements that you make

or “emoticons”.(See the table below) with your hands, your head

But don’t overuse smileys, internet expressions or acronyms – or your face to show some

not everyone will know what you are talking about. meaning

“Acronyms” are used to save space and attract the

recipient’s attention to some information. E.g.

ASAP: As soon as possible AAMOF: As a matter of fact

BTW: By the way AFIK: As far as I know

CU: See you (good bye) F2F: Face-to-face

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions FOAF: Friend of a friend

HTH: Hope this helps FYA: For your amusement

TIA: Thanks in Advance FYI: For your information

IMO: In my opinion IOW: In other words

HSIK: How should I know IWBNI: It would be nice if

TTYL: Talk to you later KIS: Keep in simple

BBL: Be back later NRN: No response necessary

OTL: Out to lunch OS: Operating system

SRAM: Unwanted mail OTOH: On the other hand

B2B: Business to business R: Received

Smileys

:-) :-D 8-) :-( :-o ;-> :-# :-t :-/

User is smiling. User is laughing. User is smiling and wearing glasses. User is sad. User made a mistake. User is winking. User will not say anything. User is cross. User is undecided.

:-~) :’-~( =:-o :-/ :-| :-> :-= l-l :-&

User has a cold User has a cold and is crying. User is very surprised. User does not believe you. Indifference Devilish smile (heavy sarcasm) User has a moustache. User is asleep. User is tongue-tied.

7. Match the means and their functions:

1. emphasizing	A. describe facial expressions
2. smileys	B. express emotions
3. acronyms	C. save space and draw attention

8. Memorize some words and expressions for Internet.

1. Attachment- A file linked to an e-mail message.

2. Bandwidth- A measure of how much information can be sent.

3. Bcc- Blind courtesy copy.

4. Bounce message- Error message returned by an e-mail system.

5. Forward- Pass along an e-mail to another address.

6. Mail box- Where your incoming messages are stored.

7. Sig quote- A quotation added to the signature.

8. Spam- Unsolicited e-mail messages (usually unwanted).

9. A flam- An emotional and often angry or rude message.

10. Burble- The speaker is considered incompetent or ignorant.