Words, Words, Words...

Words, words, words… There is so much to say about words as there is so many different aspects of it to discuss. Or should I say communication? I think that would be a word more fitting the situation. Communication is essential for us humans to have a certain level of skill in to make it through life. The majority of the people out there in the world use several forms of communication in their everyday life. Oral communication (not only by using words, but also how these words are expressed, and sometimes even only by the power of onomatopoetic uttering in various forms), the written word, body language and more, even silence (an area I most likely will try to, at least partly, cover in the future). Each of these different communicational tools has their different strengths, but of course, they carry weakness with them as well.

The written language is no different. It is glorified by many, and for good reasons, but it is in no way the perfect way to communicate. Let’s list a few of the major negative points to it.

• Emphasis – It is hard to write how you wish your words to be read. Every word can have a different meaning depending on how it is read and a sentence written one way can most often be misinterpreted if the receiver reads it with a different melody than was originally meant.
• “Too simple” – The written language is only but a simplification and a structuralization of its original form, oral communication. Not only does the spoken language not go by the same strict rules, but we’re also able to express what we say with our body at the same time. Someone that can skillfully use paralanguage (all forms of non-verbal communication) can even communicate with people that don’t speak the same language, which pretty much proves how big of a role it plays in face-to-face communication. This is completely stripped from the written language.

There are ways to “imitate” the things that the written language doesn’t have by writing the word you wish to intonate in a special way in italic or bold or something similar, or by using non-alphabetical characters around that word (e.g. “-“, “*” or “><”). Paralinguistic additions are usually written with non-alphabetical characters around the description that symbolizes the use of paralanguage (e.g. “*points at you with my whole hand*” or “<makes a circular motion with the arms>”). Even by using these methods, it can never reach the effectiveness of what it is trying to replicate. However, there’s other benefits with the written language you can use to your advantage in a discussion on, let’s say, a forum.

• Take your time – This goes both for reading and writing. When discussing things on a forum, you have a lot more time to understand what is really meant. You have the access to dictionaries if you don’t understand a certain word. Also, if you get a strong negative feeling about something that is written, you have the benefit of cooling down before you make your reply so your reply doesn’t come out in rage, in an irrational and rude manner. Also, when you do write your reply, there’s always a chance to read your own reply to see if what you’ve written really is reflecting what you wish to say, and in a constructive way at that. There’s no reason to stress a reply; it most often only results in more energy being used to argue or further explain what you wish to say in the end.
  
• Research – If you have a point you wish to make, but don’t fully have the arguments to back it up, you can research. That way, you’ll not only have a better chance of being understood, you will also gain more security.

The written language is beautiful. Just don’t forget to use its strengths. That way, you’ll get so much more out of it.

- Kaffe Myers Nov 23 2007