Social Presence: Watch Your Words

I'm sure it has never happened to you, but I have accidentally offended people via email. It wasn't necessarily the words I used...it was the way I said it. Communicating only via text can be a little tricky, because so much of the non-verbal subtext that we also use to convey meaning gets stripped away. Sometimes we wind up sounding angry (or angrier?) than we might mean to. Sometimes we might sound vacuous or silly. Sometimes we might come across flat, even when we are actually enthusiastic.

We have to watch our words when communicating online...but also how we say them!

In my last few posts I've been talking about social presence in online communication as "how 'real' the other person feels to you when communicating online." (Check out my posts on names and photos for more.) But even in a text-only environment--without graphics and videos and other richer media--you can definitely convey a sense of yourself as a real person. So let's think through a few ideas for how to do this...

I love Brené Brown's adage that "clear is kind." I think that this is a helpful rule for communicating online, but we don't have to be cold to be clear. I try to use a warm, conversational tone in my assignment descriptions as much as possible. Compare these two descriptions:

• You will write a philosophy paper that explains your current philosophy of education, including your view of the purpose of school, the role of the student, the role of the teacher, the purpose of the curriculum, and your approach to classroom management. Your paper will be at least 4 but not more than six pages in length, and you must follow the conventions of standard written English according to APA style.
• In this assignment, I invite you to reflect on your beliefs and how you put them into practice. Write a paper of about five pages to share your current philosophy of education. I want to see your ideas about the purpose of school, the role of the student, the role of the teacher, the purpose of the curriculum, and your approach to classroom management. While I will assess your paper for content, I expect that you'll put your best writing on display, following the conventions of standard written English. As a friendly reminder, in the field of Education we use APA style, and there is an APA reference guide linked below.

How do these feel? The first version is precise, but I think it feels cold and a little uncaring. The second version still conveys the expectations, but in (I hope) a way that feels warmer and more invitational and supportive.

I think using "I" language or "we" language instead of "you" language can really help with conveying care to students. I would encourage you to do this too!

Exclamation points can be an important part of communicating online to show a bit more emotion in your writing. It's certainly possible to overdo this(!!!) but it can help. I also think using italics, underlining, and bold can help to infuse a little more "voice into your writing. I try to avoid ALL CAPS WHENEVER POSSIBLE, because this--by convention--is the equivalent of shouting online. (My mom has a Facebook friend who always types in all caps...and I laugh because this friend actually does have a very loud voice, and it just seems to be her online, text-based communication matching her actual speaking voice.) :-)

And...silly as it might sound...think about using emojis in your writing. Including those little smiley faces like the one I added at the end of the last paragraph can actually make a difference. They help convey a sense of tone that may or may not come through in the words alone.

These are admittedly small things that you can do, but cumulatively they demonstrate more of the idea that you are a real, whole person on the other side of your computer connection. Modeling this sort of use of language for students--and even pointing it out to them!--might be a promising practice for humanizing your online communication. 

Image by Juliana Romão via Unsplash

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(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)