>I just finished reading a thread title that uses the apparently new English language standard of '???' to indicate the author's sincere desire to pose a question. This is in contrast to people who aren't really sincere and still use the antiquated single question mark '?'. I also noticed a triple-exclamation point where the author was, of course, expressing his ecstatic thanks-in-advance.

Here's another possible viewpoint: perhaps it is meant to a) catch your eye, or b) give a more casual tone to the topic (that is, more like spoken English rather than written English -- yes, there's a difference!).

While I'd love it if all messages were perfect in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and content, I think we've come to think that email is a less formal means of communication than written letters and documents. People compose emails as if they were speaking.

SET RANT ON && Not directed specifically to Keith, he just gets the reply!

If you transcribe some very intelligent conversations, I think you'd find that there is horrible grammar, irregular punctuation, and it certainly would make less sense since inflection and body language is absent. Would this be indicative of people who aren't critical thinkers or who don't pay attention to details? Hardly. It means we speak differently than we write.

I do quite a bit of writing, and I can say that writing documents that find their final form on paper (books, articles, memos) is done quite differently than email. I don't use emoticons and commonly used acronyms in "paper" documents, but I *do* use them in emails -- that casual medium which needs inflection and body language to help note when people are intentionally being funny, sarcastic, or to define when they are NOT being funny or sarcastic.

I'm also reminded of many of the computer science majors (include any of the physical sciences, too) with whom I went to college. Many of them BRAGGED that they got through their degrees without having to write a single paper (having passed out of the required English Comp class due to superior test scores, and carefully selecting electives that didn't require writing). Something tells me that their writing skills could be less-than-stellar. To be fair, I know some humanities majors who have dubious writing skills, too, so it's not necessarily the major that counts. My guess is that on a forum filled with software developers, many of these people have focused on skills other than writing perfect documents.

Like I said, it'd be great if every message was perfectly crafted, contained the perfect amount of content to answer questions on the first response, and titles that are descriptive. However, I realize that the people that frequent this wonderful place, many of them dear friends of mine, aren't always going to be perfect writers. And I'll encourage them to continue posting, and hope they don't fear posting because of people critiquing their writing or proofreading skills (or lack thereof <s>).

SET RANT OFF

No hard feelings, mind you, just trying to point out a different side of the same coin.

- della, who, since 9/11, is finding it difficult to be critical of people these days, especially the FoxGang who were in attendance at DevCon, and provided so much support in such a tragic situation