I go through dozens of work emails a day and I have to tell you that I think the most irritating punctuation use overkill is the ellipsis.
What is an ellipsis, you ask? It's a series of dots (usually three) that mostly indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning.
Depending on how the user is using it, it could also indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight pause, or a nervous or awkward silence.
An Aposiopesis refers to when an ellipsis is used in a sentence to deliberately break off or trail off of a sentence. The show an aposiopesis, the user can either add a longer dash,"--" (Don't walk on my lawn again, or else--!), or three dots, "..."
Usually when someone uses the three dots at the end of a sentence, it's to observe a feeling of longing or melancholy. (If only I had a sandwich...)
That being said, how dramatic does a work email have to be to use an ellipsis one or multiple times? Or, if you are the type of person who uses them frequently within a paragraph, are you portraying the topic as an absent-minded aloof idiot or are you omitting several paragraphs you have yet to write because honestly they aren't going to change the subject of the email without their presence.
If you are attempting to email me a list of your unfinished thoughts, you do realize there is a "drafts" folder that will allow you to continue the composition of your email after you've gathered yourself, right?
This isn't an oxford comma, people. This is a completely unnecessary form of punctuation to use in a work email. News article? Definitely. Short story? Of course!
Seriously...
No comments:
Post a Comment