Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that one exclamation point is enough. Yes,
Speaker 1: written language can benefit from some show of emotion, but
Speaker 1: exclamation point inflation gets us nowhere. Being a bit spare
Speaker 1: can preserve this bit of punctuations power. Today's tip comes
Speaker 1: from Erica Dewan's new book Digital Body Language, How to
Speaker 1: Build Trust and Connection no matter the distance. The book
Speaker 1: is about managing the work landscape when people work virtually
Speaker 1: at least some of the time. That's really almost all
Speaker 1: of us these days, because even if you are in
Speaker 1: an office forty hours a week, my guess is that
Speaker 1: you email your colleagues as often as you actually talk
Speaker 1: to them. There is some evidence that written communication is
Speaker 1: perceived more negatively than spoken communication. When we see people talk,
Speaker 1: we see the soothing nonverbal cues like smiling that's softened
Speaker 1: the words. Written text gets none of that help. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's also a bit harder to emphasize things in written communication.
Speaker 1: When you're talking, you can raise your voice or say
Speaker 1: words differently to show what you really mean. People attempt
Speaker 1: to compensate in emails, which is why there are a
Speaker 1: lot of exclamation points these days. As to one rights, today,
Speaker 1: exclamation points arranged throughout texts and emails convey friendliness. Indeed,
Speaker 1: she writes, they have become so obligatory in emails that
Speaker 1: you risk coming off as brusque or cold if you
Speaker 1: fail to use them. We also live in a distracted world,
Speaker 1: and people might think that more exclamation points will help
Speaker 1: capture people's attention. But really four exclamation points or five
Speaker 1: or six is just silly. It can come across as screaming,
Speaker 1: and it can look like a gigantic fence in the
Speaker 1: middle of your emails. And hey, if you use three
Speaker 1: in this sentence and four in another, how am I
Speaker 1: supposed to interpret that best? To avoid the inflation, rights
Speaker 1: to one, you should use them judiciously, since in serious
Speaker 1: situations they can be interpreted as overly intense and even immature.
Speaker 1: Who wants that not you so followed this rule, one
Speaker 1: exclamation point is enough. If you find yourself wanting to
Speaker 1: use two in a particular sentence, then go back through
Speaker 1: your note and remove some from elsewhere, so using one
Speaker 1: still conveys the emphasis. You can also try to rewrite
Speaker 1: to make your point with words. We say things like
Speaker 1: the market crashed rather than the market fell very very,
Speaker 1: very very fast, and you should think the same with punctuation.
Speaker 1: I need this tomorrow by ten am. I will check
Speaker 1: in at four pm today to make sure we are
Speaker 1: still on track. Is much better than I need this
Speaker 1: fast with four exclamation points. So today, try to turn
Speaker 1: down your exclamation point usage a bit. If you never
Speaker 1: use them, well, you can liven up a little. We
Speaker 1: do live in a casual age when even serious people
Speaker 1: use emojis. But like all forceful language, exclamation points do
Speaker 1: more when we expect them to do less. Best to
Speaker 1: stay to one. In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then breakfast
Speaker 1: p O D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch
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