In a business writing class this week, a woman made an excellent suggestion in response to the question “Are smiley faces acceptable in email?”
Before I share her fine idea, let me state that I have never included a smiley face in an email, and I probably never will. My personal view is that smiley faces are distracting, silly, and always unnecessary. To me, putting a smiley face in a business email is no different from drawing one in a business letter sent on letterhead. Can you imagine doing that?
That said, I realize that other people love using them in their email. They believe the smiling faces are friendly, warm, and reassuring. So while I find the goofy smiles (and other emoticons) simply goofy, I still like the people who use them, and I respect their efforts to create friendly business messages. I myself always try to communicate warmth and kindness in my business writing, but I use words rather than emoticons.
Note: For anyone who has been absent from the Internet for the past few years, these are emoticons (bend your head down to your left shoulder to “read” them properly):
{:-) (:( 😉 ;-D
In writing classes, people often want a definitive answer to the question “Are smiley faces appropriate in business email?” My answer is NO, DO NOT USE THEM, but that is not what people want to hear. Often they themselves enjoy smiley faces in the messages they receive, and it makes no sense to them not to use the playful symbols.
Here is the great suggestion from the woman in class:
Don’t use a smiley face in a message to a client or customer until the person uses one in a message to you. That way you will know the person likes smiley faces too.
I like her suggestion a lot. I would even extend it beyond clients and customers to managers, CEOs, donors, citizens, patrons, and others. I would apply her suggestion to anyone you need to impress as a professional.
What do you think about smiley faces? Please share your opinions here in a comment or by email.
Keep smiling!
Lynn
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Other search spellings: emial, bisness, buisness, wiritng, wiring, wirting, smily,