Emoticons can be wrongly used

Emoticons have survived even in today’s world where people can use photo or video to show the smiling faces of them. Nowadays, these smiley faces have transformed themselves into animation rather than just flat images. Researchers found that people actually in love with these little characters where they can be seen in many emails (Davies 2007). However, not all emoticons are suitable to be written in email, sometimes emoticons can be misused in some circumstances. In certain context, emoticons may not be suitable especially those professional or business kind of emails. Emoticons are very informal where some people think that using emoticons (eg: smiley face) in business email will destroy the professionalism of the sender or the company. According to Munter, Rogers and Rymer (2003), emoticons may eventually harm the credibility of the sender where they suggest it is better to make the “tone clear with carefully crafted words” . Thus, it is crucial to know the right timing in using the suitable emoticons based on the different contexts in emails.

The use of emoticons have been perceived to be traditionally. Sometimes, people tend to use it unintentionally where it could be more believable than verbal (Khorn 2004). Nowadays, emoticons have been mostly used by youngster in instant messaging, emailing or social networking. However, people tend to use those emoticons just for beatifications but not meanings deliver. According to Kress and Van Leuween (2006), image is no longer just an illustration or decoration, visual could contribute to meaning making where it could stands as an independent vessel. Since images as here emoticons carry certain meanings, people should use them for meaning building but not only for beautification. Emoticons did help in expressing the emotions and on the other hand served as a quick way to explain feelings. However, it is only suitable in the context of friends emailing where the communication is more informal (Khorn 2004)

Nowadays, many email users violate the conventional rules of spelling, jargon, grammar, punctuation especially when formality is needed. According to Krohan (2004), emoticons only can be used when business communication’s tone is casual and when the emoticons are understandable by the receivers. Thus, it should be noted that when using emoticons for email, one should evaluates the kind of communication one wants to create amongst the sender and the receiver and the kind of context to be use in order to apply the suitable emoticons for different situations.

Below are some of the examples of simple emoticons:

:->	devilish
= • :/	hmmm
= • :-o	surprised
$-)	just hit it big
#-)	stayed up too late
:-I	bored
;-(	crying
:-&	tongue tied
:-V	talking
%-(	confused
%-)	dazed or silly
}-)	wry smile

Reference list

Davies, A 2007, Emoticons and email ettiquette, TheMediaReport, viewed 3 June 2010, < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm>

Kress, G & Van Leuween, T 2006, Reading images, Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

Krohn, FB 2004, “ A generational approach to using emoticons as nonverbal communication”, Journal of technical writing and communication, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 321-328.

Munter, M, Rogers PS, Rymer J 2003, “ Business e-mail: Guidelines for users”, Business communication quarterly, Vol.66, No. 1, pp. 26-40.