Sorry but, I have no idea what you're saying!

Are you sure that's how you want to write it?

This time we were asked to dive into the curls and curves of communication. Our team decided to focus on written communication because we had noticed in our team’s chat that often times conflicts were created when people were talking via text. We wanted to research if the reaction to your message would change based on how you write it.

What we did?

We found a professional company email and modified it into 4 different forms: Two of them as they were in professional tone; one in Finnish and one exactly the same but translated to English, one was with caps lock and exclamation marks and the last one with emojis and more friendly tone. We made a questionnaire regarding the feelings and thoughts these different versions woke in people and send it to 11 participants to answer.

What did the results say?

The results we got were very clear. Exclamation marks and caps lock were not liked at all. The person writing was seen as attacking, unprofessional and an asshole basically. This type of writing woke anger, frustration, and even fear in people.

The emoji version seemed to evoke joy and happiness in people. They saw the other person as a fun person, a nice guy, but not really as someone they’d like to do business with. All the emojis and “hey buddy”, seemed a bit unprofessional.

The biggest surprise for us was how big of a difference there was between a text written in English and in Finnish. Even though the tone on them was the same and the information was the same, the English version got a bigger number of people who thought the person writing the message was professional and they’d like to do business with him.

Does it matter how you write it?

ABSOLUTELY YES! I think when we write we need to focus even more on the fact how we say it because with written form there are no other implications about your message than the text in front of the person. This can cause your message to get lost and being interpreted totally wrong. The more professional and calm tone you use in your message the better. If you want to boost your professional look, maybe write it in English. I’d avoid using caps lock, exclamation marks, and emojis when you want to be seen as professional and someone to do business with. With your friends, of course, go crazy on emojis, but I’d still avoid pressing that caps lock unless you want to yell at your friends in written form.

So next time you start writing a message, read it through a couple of times before hitting that send button, just to make sure you are writing it the way you really want to say it.

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