How to Convey Your Tone Though Text

Mr.GoldGames · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:36 am

So this is not directly targeted at anyone, but this is a post I've been working on for about a month now. I wanted to create something to help everyone properly convey their tone over text. This will hopefully help people understand the tone of your text, and how to create that tone through your text.

Wording Your Comments Correctly

Depending on the way you word your reply, it could set the tone of your conversation. For an example, if you say "I really don't think you are getting any of this" that could mean many things. Most people would take it as an attack, saying you called them stupid or idiotic. Though, you actually were trying to say that they are lost, or maybe aren't getting the current conversation you two are having. Always start off with the lightest response possible if you are trying to respectfully respond to the situation. For example, maybe write "If you don't understand, I can further explain myself if needed." This can tell a person that you are okay if they need an extra explanation. You want to make sure that the person you are having a conversation with feels comfortable in the conversation so that it doesn't get portrayed the wrong way.

Anticipated Accuracy v.s. Actual Accuracy

So there is a huge difference in understanding tone when its voice and text. Everyone knows that if you are speaking with someone on the phone, its much easier to understand what kind of tone you are conveying. However, your tone through text is a lot harder to decipher. In a 2005 study, test participants emailed 10 statements to a recipient. Some statements were serious, some sarcastic. These senders believed the recipient would correctly identify the intended emotion behind most of the messages. In fact, the recipients only identified seriousness or sarcasm 56% of the time, which isn’t much better than chance.

VIA KRUGER ET AL (2005), JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Comfortable Conversation

You want to make sure that the conversation you both are having is like a huge comfy couch that you both can sit on. If you start to restrict the other person from sitting on the comfy couch, then you aren't going to have a decent conversation. Basically, you want to make sure that you are talking to the person in a way they can understand. You don't want to talk like Stephen Hawking with his big vocabulary words if the other can reciprocate because then your tone will be the last thing they are going to try to figure out.

You want to make sure you and the other person are on the same "Conversation Comfort Level" which basically means talking to one another on the same intellectual level. So, if someone doesn't know the meaning of Paradoxically, then your conversation is going to be a little confusing and you are at risk of losing the tone of it.

Intellectual Conversation

When people lack the information, they tend to rely on stereotypes to fill in the gaps. In the case of emails and other digital messages, the missing information tends to be a full appreciation of the sender’s personality. That’s why it’s usually clear when a friend or loved one is joking in a note or text, but not always clear that a remote colleague is doing the same.

For example, in another 2005 study, This time, test participants rated the intelligence of a stranger based on answers to questions received via email. Since they never met the message sender, recipients had to rely on a (fictional) photo and brief bio. In some cases, the sender was a well-dressed Asian with a high GPA and a double major in physics and philosophy. In others, it was a white kid in a Metallica T-shirt with a middling GPA in hotel management who’d been a high school football player.

Shocker of the day (that’s sarcasm, just to clarify): test participants rated the Asian’s email answers as more intelligent than Metallica dude’s. But when the exact same answers were given to other test participants over the phone–with voice filling in some of the character gaps–the two strangers were rated as equally smart. So when we receive an email from someone we don’t know too well, we often revert to personality stereotypes, and in doing so raise the chances of emotional misinterpretation.

VIA EPLEY & KRUGER (2005), JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The Positive Outlook

Digital miscommunication wouldn’t be much of a problem if we always adopted the most optimistic or generous view of an ambiguous email or text. If we all took “noted” to mean “he noted that” instead of “he hates me,” we could all move on with our days. But that’s not what we do. Management scholar Kristin Byron of Syracuse University has written that misinterpretation tends to comes in two forms: neutral or negative. So we dull positive notes (largely because the lack of emotional cues makes us less engaged with the message), and we assume the worst in questionable ones.

This digital slide toward neutrality or negativity came through in a 2011 study led by psychologist Bradley Okdie of the University of Alabama. Test participants were paired up and instructed simply to converse and get to know each other. Some interacted face to face; others via instant message. The face-to-face interaction took more reported effort–you had to actually acknowledge and deal with another living being–but also resulted in more positive ratings of the partner’s character, and an overall more enjoyable experience.

The lesson is a little face or phone time can go a long way toward exchanging more personality information, forming more positive impressions, and reducing email awkwardness. Short of that, it can help to use concrete emotional words in an email (e.g. “I’m happy to say…”), or to clarify someone’s tone (“when you said that, I took it to mean…”), or if you must, to dispatch emoticons. Some companies have been known to include disclaimers saying that brief emails may give a “false impression of curtness or insensitivity”–though people misinterpret the disclaimers, too.

If nothing else, Byron writes, it’s at least important to recognize that “we are fallible as both email senders and receivers.”

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3036748/why-its-so-hard-to-detect-emotion-in-emails-and-texts

That's a Wrap

So that's pretty much it honestly. I just wanted to share with you guys what I've been learning in my Effective Journalism class over the course of 8 weeks. Hope you guys can use this information when you use the forums. I feel as if this is vital information for people who communicate especially in an environment such as this one.

Caboose · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:47 am

What if I think they're stupid and I want them to know that I think they're stupid? Do I just do this backwards?

SpazzO · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:52 am

Caboose wrote:

What if I think they're stupid and I want them to know that I think they're stupid? Do I just do this backwards?

The trolls begin to gather.

There are a lot of psychological studies on the tone of text and how people interpret written tone.
But at the end of the day, it is damn near physically impossible to fully ascertain the tone of a written text model, unless you know the demeanor of the person in real life.

Geeza · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:19 am

lol gold did you learn from this too because everyone got the wrong side of things when you write :3

But anyway, this is good

Terminator · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:36 am

why can't u just do a post about "how to talk to girls"? would be more helpfull or me xD
like, its ez to interpretate me....
its either trol, sarcasm, or angry

not that hard tho

Phillip · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:23 pm

I have no tone
I have no.emotions
My lines are quiet
There for you will always assume my tone
Facts

McNugget · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:39 pm

Instructions unclear, got my dic stuck in a tionary.

Birdman · **Posted:** Wed Oct 18, 2017 1:03 am

Sorry Op, I did not read this thread, please try better next time. Maybe make a thread about possibly antique horseshoes???

Minion · **Posted:** Wed Oct 18, 2017 1:25 am

just do what eagle does xDDD and put :DDDDDDDDDDDd faces xDDDD everywhere CXXXXXX you :]]]]]]] Possibly XCCCCCCCC Can

PPPPPP :} :{ :X :$ :^) :^] AND THEN :^D YOU CAN BE :} SEEN :D AS A :{{{{{{ SUPER :)))))))) CUCK :}}}}}}}

mattlikespie · **Posted:** Wed Oct 18, 2017 9:02 am

uh this is definetly targeting me

Pretty neat gold, it’s at the least an interesting read

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