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Well, this is me stumbling through a dark forest of online writing. I'm going to do my best to describe what I've learned in the most recent excercise in class. Basically, by following directions and using none of my own intelligence, I managed to create text in MS word and Notepad and change it into online text by saving it as a web page. I'm not sure I understand all of the intricate details but I believe I have the jist of the excercise. I learned that writing in MS word does not transfer over to "html" text which is it's own language. I'm learning how to create this language and how to save it in the right places to publish it as a web page.

Not sure I understand it all, but I'll keep on truckin!

Check out my uploaded html file...
test.html

"Upon reading this revised, informative subject line, the recipient immediately starts thinking about the size of the room, not about whether it will be worth it to open the e-mail."

- Writing Effective E-mail: Top 10 Tips

This article helped me see aspects of e-mailing that I never realized or thought about before. The most eye-opening for me was the point about writing a creative and informative subject line. Until I read this article, I honestly never found the importance of trying to create an informative subject line and would usually just tack one on at the end saying whatever I though of at the time. However, having a few classes in journalism and newswriting, this article helped me realize that writing a subject line is almost like writing a lead to a story. The point is to "hook" the reader and draw them in to what the rest of the article/e-mail is about. When looking at writing a subject line through the lense of selling your e-mail to the reader, it unconciously makes you put more time and more thought into what that subject line would be. For example, like the article says, if the e-mail is a quick question, why not write it in the subject line? This way you save time and also, your e-mail has less of a chance of getting lost among the spam and thrown away or deleted.

More Comments on E-mail

"About half said they sometimes omitted proper punctuation and capitalization in schoolwork. A quarter said they had used emoticons like smiley faces. About a third said they had used text shortcuts like "LOL" for "laugh out loud."

In Tamar Lewin's article Lewin discusses how today's online language is affecting student's schoolwork. I found it interesting that some students, as discussed in the quote above, have caught themselves putting inappropriate punctuation and language in their schoolwork because of their exposure to the more informal writing found in text messaging, instant messaging, etc.

In my experience and understanding with the evolution and history of language, generation by generation there are changes that take place. When looking at the transition from Old English to Middle English to Early Modern English and so on, there are constantly new rules and new jargin that change and evolve the language. This phenomenon that is taking place with new online language is a result of the search for the quickest and most convenient way to communicate to others. From this, the language is once again changing in correspondence with society's changes and therefore many of these new habits and techniques such as emoticons, or "LOL"s may eventually become accepted and thought proper in our professional writing.