Sunday, April 6, 2008

Modern Doesn't Always Mean Better

Writing on the Web can prove to be much different than writing on paper. There are many reasons that cause this difference. They include: format, tone, speech and font. While writing on paper has a standard format: sender's address, recipient's address, date, salutation, body, closing and signature, the Web offers a more open-ended structure when it comes to format. Often the sender's address never appears in an email. A second reason is tone. Usually a formal tone is taken when writing on paper, while a more casual tone usually appears on the Web. When writing emails to colleagues, many people fail to capitalize their letters. A third reason is speech. By speech I mean Web lingo, like that which appears in all the Cingular commercials. One in particular has a grandmother stating, "Idk my bff Rose," which translates to I don't know my best friend Rose. It almost as if we have created a Neo-English language. I know we are trying to "go green" but does everything have to become hybrid? Something of this nature would never appear in a letter or memo. Finally, you need to be careful of the type of font used in a Web document. The best fonts to use on the Web are Arial and Verdana because they are more readable on a Web page. So, if you are transferring a Word document that is typed in Times New Roman to the Web be sure to change the font style.

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