Texting: The Big Tease—or Trap?
Texting has become a hybrid language unto itself—like sign language for the hearing-impaired or the slang teens invent to create a world all their own.
Texting shortcuts such as gr8 or C U 2moro tossed into a formal document suggest that some naïve soul fails to understand the importance of language to his or her career. Unfortunately, CEOs and hiring executives screen out many otherwise capable employees because their writing is inappropriate for the occasion and purpose.
Think of it like this: You don’t wear jeans to a wedding. Neither do you wear a tux to a football game. You dress for the occasion. The same is true for writing. You write for the purpose and the occasion. Informal abbreviations and sloppy grammar may be permissable in texting, but not in a résumé, a cover email, or a sales proposal. Writing too informally for the occasion can be just as damaging to your career as dressing inappropriately.
Stuffed-shirt writing with overblown language and excessively long sentences has never been “in style.” But neither do texting shortcuts—more appropriate for your T-shirt—carry much weight with executives. The issue is not “right” or “wrong,” “old-fashioned” or “new trend”; the matter centers on appropriateness for the purpose.
Text c u l8r to the top at your own risk.
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