Digital Penmanship in an Age of Incoherence

Digital Penmanship in an Age of Incoherence

Alternatively titled, "rofl @ u lol!!"

It is no secret that society constantly strives to simplify vocabulary, even as new words enter our vocabulary every day. Many of us know that at one time, lengthy, highly descriptive words were used to communicate even the simplest of things. Sometimes unneccessary complication was added to sentence structure just to allow for such words!

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not a stickler for 16'th century language, though I think it is very important to have a strong vocabulary. However, I have my limits. The next cell-phone text message I receive that says 'u goin 2 call l8r?' or 'hey just wanted to give u a shout hope ur doin good lol!!!', will test my patience, and strain at the confines of my peace loving soul. ;-)

Digital penmanship is critical. Take the extra five seconds out of your day to properly capitalize, punctuate, and structure your sentences. This is true of text messages, instant messaging, and email; when your face isn't present, your body of text represents attitude, your intelligence, and your philosophy of professional conduct. It's not masculine to talk like a barbarian, nor is it graceful. So I present to you, five quick tips for maintaining professional courtesy in your digital life.

Think of your messages as hand-written thank-you notes to royalty. Show the same sort of courtesy and presence of mind in your digital writing, as you would expect a poet of the 17'th century to show towards the king. Respect your readers!

Don't be hasty to publish your ignorance! That's right, don't rush. The single biggest mistake of the digital age, is to rely on digital convenience. Don't allow the ability to hastily blast something at the screen, or worse, the ability to erase and start over, cause you to rush the writing process. Take the extra time to 'dot your i's and cross your t's'.

Remember what poor text-crafting represents! Professionals in the print industry maintain a very high standard, because well crafted text represents knowledge, confidence, strength, and a firm grasp of communication. They perfect their work so as to make sure their words are weighty, and purposeful. Why would we treat personal communication with any less ferver? Poor text-craft causes the image of idleness, carelessness, slothfulness, childishness, and ignorance.

Grasp the timelessness of text! Realize that though digital words take only moments to craft, they will live on eternally to future generations. This is especially true of blogs and emails, which are much like the publications and letters of our forefathers. How much knowledge of our forefathers has been gained through the letters and paper publications that they printed in their lifetimes? Why should we handle our digital speech casually?

Remember: Our habits of digital penmanship quickly become our habits of speech. By continually perfecting our arts of textual communication, we form habits of sentence structure and articulation. These habits will be reflected in our speech, which deserves just as much, if not more thoughtfulness and consideration. They say 'garbage in, garbage out'. One truth about everything we type, write, or text; we personally read it. Make sure you're not writing garbage, or that old phrase may be proven yet again, the next time you open your mouth.

Apply these. See what happens to the effectiveness of your communication, when you take just a few extra moments to dot your digital i's.

iDot: A new approach to digital communication.

~ In Christ, John.