We all know the old saying, “It’s not what you say….it’s how you say it”. Well, in the age of emails, texts, Facebook updates, tweets, and the like, sometimes the message you are trying to send gets lost in translation. The emotion or affect you were trying to convey in what you wrote is not the same emotion in which it is read. Our state of mind at the time we read something can affect the way we interpret what someone has written. So, in a sense, the saying has become “It’s not what you say…it’s how I read it”.
An email sent with the intention of being witty and playful may come off to someone else as condescending and hurtful. We can’t always know what the reader’s state of mind will be or how they will interpret what we write, but we can take steps to try to minimize confusion.
- Always reread what you write.
- Try to take the reader’s point of view
- Be objective
