In modern times, texting is like a way of life. It’s how you communicate with your peers. The way we communicate using something known as “textisms”, which is English but it’s made to fit the world of texting. Punctuation is quite a critical part, as it can convey the reader to think a certain way.
Proper punctuation is an extremely important tool. Here is a classic, “Let’s go eat, grandma!” versus “Let’s go eat grandma!”, although both are very similar sentences, their meaning isn’t. The first one conveys the meaning of telling your grandma “Let’s go eat”, whereas the second sentence tells us you’re a cannibal and you want to eat grandma. Another example is how “Eat your dinner” is not the same as “Eat. You’re dinner”, because had punctuation can result in cannibalizing sentences.
The way you text also depends on who you’re communicating with. For example, if you were to text your boss, it would probably be in a more professional way than the way you talk to your friends. According to Dummies, it conveys the fact that you need to “think about the impression you’re trying to make. If you’re writing to a potential client, formal language may show respect and care”. If you are going to text a potential client with “lol”s and winky-face-with-tongue-stuck-out while texting them, it shows that “you don’t care”, versus a more formal manner, it comes out like you are taking it very seriously.
Last but not least, punctuation in texting tells them how you are feeling and it conveys mood. According to an article on the Binghamton University news page, it states “A 2016 study led by Klin found that text messages that end with a period are seen as less sincere than text messages that do not end with a period”. As an example, “sure.” sounds a lot more formal and less sincere, whereas “sure!” sounds more enthusiastic.
In conclusion, punctuation needs to be used in texting, depending on the context. Punctuation drastically changes the meaning of a sentence and helps express the mood and tone.
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