#and punctuates every single message with a smiley face emoji

[holeposts]

my idiot roommate is sick and coughing but still using her goddamn hairspray. at 8 pm at night. what is it for? what is it all for?

[franklyshai]

Week Two: Art Book Fair

Started the week with a public holiday, Labour Day on Monday. RMIT thought it was fair for everyone to not just cancel classes on this day but all week except for lectures. We only have 2 lectures a week and one got cancelled as well, leaving us with only 1 on Friday. Which consists of this:

Our teacher was showing us how humans started communicating in the early stages of life and how it evolved through periods of time. He showed us pictures of how they communicate their stories through clays/rocks and drawing on them.  

And also how emojis changed the way we communicate to each other nowadays. He asked if we feel obliged to use this sometimes, or if we feel weird not to use it when messaging and I certainly do. When someone messages me without any emojis, it gives me the impression that they’re serious, wants the conversation to get to the point and get it over and done with. It’s like talking to a robot without any emotion. Sometimes, it makes me overthink when reading their replies whether they’re annoyed, angry or sad. 

I am so used to using emojis that when i’m constructing emails, I have to proof-read it twice to make sure I don’t use any smiley faces because it seems unprofessional. But at the same time, if I don’t put any smiley faces, it sometimes seem cold and soulless.

Not having any emojis can also make a misunderstanding. For example:

“How dare you??!!” is different to “How dare you??!! 😂”

You can also add emojis to emphasise your reaction or feelings like:

“Whatever you say. 😉”

“🙄🙄🙄”

And our teacher also gave us an example of how we can put weight in what we’re saying to make it seem important or demanding by:

“I need to eat ice cream every single day!” or adding:

“I 👏🏼 need 👏🏼 to 👏🏼 eat 👏🏼 ice 👏🏼 cream 👏🏼 every 👏🏼 single 👏🏼 day!”

But not only emojis, we can also use punctuation marks to communicate our expression like;

“Sure Karen, you “WAITED 3 HOURS” to be served.”

You can also count how many question marks there is to estimate how confused I am:

“Wait, so in order to lose weight we have to work out and eat healthy??????????????????”

“I can only have 1 bubble tea a week?????”

See?

Anyway, after the lecture we had an excursion and went to NGV to check the Art Book Fair. There was zines scattered in some sitting area which are beautifully made, giving me inspiration for our next project of making zines.

Found my favourite stall by PRYPRESS:

They are an independent publisher and project space based in Singapore. They produce limited edition zines, books, prints and many more. Their works attracts me the most because of their design style. Exploring different ways they can layout text through different ways. Edgy style that has that messy but organised feel. And also their fun typefaces.

My favourite work they showcased is the “Trash found all over Singapore” as they used recycled cardboard and made it the body of the book, in which I find quirky and smart.

Going around the fair, I found myself more attracted to colourful things rather than minimal colours. I especially found this stall attractive with its colourful comic books and magazines; the SILENT ARMY STOREROOM a small press comic store/audio. And I bought a deck of cards from them made by Amanda Baeza.

My favourite out of all the cards:

I’m interested in tarot cards and am always fascinated on how they communicate their many meanings in one card that I actually designed my own and submitted it as one of my artworks to apply for my course.

And i’m still finding my way through the whole deck and hopefully someday I can finish and publish it.

See you on week three! :)

[ubgamingnews]

The Unwritten Rules of Work Email

You will write hundreds of emails.

That’s not such a bold claim: the average office worker gets 121 emails daily, and the sheer number of emails sent in a single day amounts to 269 billion. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, we give away 13 hours to email every week.

From these figures, email is unavoidable–you can even say that office workers live and breathe email. It’s still the primary means of communication at work (excluding face-to-face conversations), especially when reaching out to people outside your company.

Regardless of your position or your industry, writing is one of those skills that you’re not allowed to neglect. Given that email is so prevalent, you should be well-versed already in the unstated rules of writing work emails, but here’s a refresher:

Follow the standard structure

It’s a formula you see nearly every time–have a definite greeting and closing, then end with your signature block.

You have several options for greetings, ranging from “Hi” to “Dear” to “To whom it may concern.” Gauge which one to use based on how formal you should be, and include the recipient’s name as much as possible to keep it personal.

For closings, classic choices include “Sincerely” and “Best,” although you may want to try out “Thanks” and “Thanks in advance” since they tend to provoke the most responses.

Finally, your signature block should contain your full name, your position, and the company you’re working in, along with your contact details. Keep your contact details concise: you don’t have to include your phone number, unless you want the recipient to call you.

Be mindful of your grammar

The details matter! Emails may be more flexible than letters, but they’re definitely not as lax as texts or instant messages. Emojis are generally to be avoided, although you can use an occasional smiley.

Hold your language to the same thoroughness as if you were writing a full-blown report: capitalize the first letter of your sentences, put in proper punctuation, and aim for perfect grammar. You never click Send right away: take the time to read through your email for possible errors.

Likewise, be neat with the formatting. As much as possible, use the same classic font and color all throughout (it’s kinder on the eyes!) and avoid all caps (because that’s the written equivalent of yelling).

Consider your tone

This is where your discernment comes in. You have to adapt your tone to whoever you’re sending it to.

When in doubt, it’s better to be too formal than the opposite–especially when the recipient is someone outside the company. With coworkers, though, there might be a bit more leeway for you to be casual.

Take note that email (or anything that’s written) can be easily misunderstood because it doesn’t include body language: a joke that cracks people up when you tell it in person may fall flat in an email. Moreover, it doesn’t have the emojis or stickers–the additional expressiveness–of more casual messaging.

To avoid giving the wrong impression, don’t send emails when you’re enraged or highly emotional. Calm down first, then write.

Be concise

The purpose of an email is utilitarian: it isn’t meant to be art. Keep it short, sticking to 150 words or less. Be considerate of the other person’s time.

This also applies to the subject line, which should be clear and self-explanatory. People usually decide whether to open an email or not based on the subject line. If they’re viewing their inbox on a mobile device, that’s all they get at first glance.

Here’s something interesting: emails with no subject lines are opened more, probably because they stand out and pique people’s curiosity, but we definitely don’t recommend this–it’s unprofessional, and looks like spam.  

Respond on time

Make it a personal policy to reply to all emails addressed directly to you. Aim for a 24-hour response time. If you can’t give a full-blown response right away, send a quick email confirming you’ve seen it and you’ll follow with a more detailed reply in a bit.

HubSpot recommends shortening the time frame to 12 hours when it comes to your teammates–they might need your response to continue with their work. For emails from outside the company, you can stretch it out to until end of the week maximum.

The post The Unwritten Rules of Work Email appeared first on Sprout.

Source: https://sprout.ph/blog/the-unwritten-rules-of-work-email/

[anaandi]

The Unwritten Rules of Work Email

You will write hundreds of emails.

That’s not such a bold claim: the average office worker gets 121 emails daily, and the sheer number of emails sent in a single day amounts to 269 billion. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, we give away 13 hours to email every week.

From these figures, email is unavoidable–you can even say that office workers live and breathe email. It’s still the primary means of communication at work (excluding face-to-face conversations), especially when reaching out to people outside your company.

Regardless of your position or your industry, writing is one of those skills that you’re not allowed to neglect. Given that email is so prevalent, you should be well-versed already in the unstated rules of writing work emails, but here’s a refresher:

Follow the standard structure

It’s a formula you see nearly every time–have a definite greeting and closing, then end with your signature block.

You have several options for greetings, ranging from “Hi” to “Dear” to “To whom it may concern.” Gauge which one to use based on how formal you should be, and include the recipient’s name as much as possible to keep it personal.

For closings, classic choices include “Sincerely” and “Best,” although you may want to try out “Thanks” and “Thanks in advance” since they tend to provoke the most responses.

Finally, your signature block should contain your full name, your position, and the company you’re working in, along with your contact details. Keep your contact details concise: you don’t have to include your phone number, unless you want the recipient to call you.

Be mindful of your grammar

The details matter! Emails may be more flexible than letters, but they’re definitely not as lax as texts or instant messages. Emojis are generally to be avoided, although you can use an occasional smiley.

Hold your language to the same thoroughness as if you were writing a full-blown report: capitalize the first letter of your sentences, put in proper punctuation, and aim for perfect grammar. You never click Send right away: take the time to read through your email for possible errors.

Likewise, be neat with the formatting. As much as possible, use the same classic font and color all throughout (it’s kinder on the eyes!) and avoid all caps (because that’s the written equivalent of yelling).

Consider your tone

This is where your discernment comes in. You have to adapt your tone to whoever you’re sending it to.

When in doubt, it’s better to be too formal than the opposite–especially when the recipient is someone outside the company. With coworkers, though, there might be a bit more leeway for you to be casual.

Take note that email (or anything that’s written) can be easily misunderstood because it doesn’t include body language: a joke that cracks people up when you tell it in person may fall flat in an email. Moreover, it doesn’t have the emojis or stickers–the additional expressiveness–of more casual messaging.

To avoid giving the wrong impression, don’t send emails when you’re enraged or highly emotional. Calm down first, then write.

Be concise

The purpose of an email is utilitarian: it isn’t meant to be art. Keep it short, sticking to 150 words or less. Be considerate of the other person’s time.

This also applies to the subject line, which should be clear and self-explanatory. People usually decide whether to open an email or not based on the subject line. If they’re viewing their inbox on a mobile device, that’s all they get at first glance.

Here’s something interesting: emails with no subject lines are opened more, probably because they stand out and pique people’s curiosity, but we definitely don’t recommend this–it’s unprofessional, and looks like spam.  

Respond on time

Make it a personal policy to reply to all emails addressed directly to you. Aim for a 24-hour response time. If you can’t give a full-blown response right away, send a quick email confirming you’ve seen it and you’ll follow with a more detailed reply in a bit.

HubSpot recommends shortening the time frame to 12 hours when it comes to your teammates–they might need your response to continue with their work. For emails from outside the company, you can stretch it out to until end of the week maximum.

The post The Unwritten Rules of Work Email appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/the-unwritten-rules-of-work-email/

[violetp0et]

The Unwritten Rules of Work Email

You will write hundreds of emails.

That’s not such a bold claim: the average office worker gets 121 emails daily, and the sheer number of emails sent in a single day amounts to 269 billion. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, we give away 13 hours to email every week.

From these figures, email is unavoidable–you can even say that office workers live and breathe email. It’s still the primary means of communication at work (excluding face-to-face conversations), especially when reaching out to people outside your company.

Regardless of your position or your industry, writing is one of those skills that you’re not allowed to neglect. Given that email is so prevalent, you should be well-versed already in the unstated rules of writing work emails, but here’s a refresher:

Follow the standard structure

It’s a formula you see nearly every time–have a definite greeting and closing, then end with your signature block.

You have several options for greetings, ranging from “Hi” to “Dear” to “To whom it may concern.” Gauge which one to use based on how formal you should be, and include the recipient’s name as much as possible to keep it personal.

For closings, classic choices include “Sincerely” and “Best,” although you may want to try out “Thanks” and “Thanks in advance” since they tend to provoke the most responses.

Finally, your signature block should contain your full name, your position, and the company you’re working in, along with your contact details. Keep your contact details concise: you don’t have to include your phone number, unless you want the recipient to call you.

Be mindful of your grammar

The details matter! Emails may be more flexible than letters, but they’re definitely not as lax as texts or instant messages. Emojis are generally to be avoided, although you can use an occasional smiley.

Hold your language to the same thoroughness as if you were writing a full-blown report: capitalize the first letter of your sentences, put in proper punctuation, and aim for perfect grammar. You never click Send right away: take the time to read through your email for possible errors.

Likewise, be neat with the formatting. As much as possible, use the same classic font and color all throughout (it’s kinder on the eyes!) and avoid all caps (because that’s the written equivalent of yelling).

Consider your tone

This is where your discernment comes in. You have to adapt your tone to whoever you’re sending it to.

When in doubt, it’s better to be too formal than the opposite–especially when the recipient is someone outside the company. With coworkers, though, there might be a bit more leeway for you to be casual.

Take note that email (or anything that’s written) can be easily misunderstood because it doesn’t include body language: a joke that cracks people up when you tell it in person may fall flat in an email. Moreover, it doesn’t have the emojis or stickers–the additional expressiveness–of more casual messaging.

To avoid giving the wrong impression, don’t send emails when you’re enraged or highly emotional. Calm down first, then write.

Be concise

The purpose of an email is utilitarian: it isn’t meant to be art. Keep it short, sticking to 150 words or less. Be considerate of the other person’s time.

This also applies to the subject line, which should be clear and self-explanatory. People usually decide whether to open an email or not based on the subject line. If they’re viewing their inbox on a mobile device, that’s all they get at first glance.

Here’s something interesting: emails with no subject lines are opened more, probably because they stand out and pique people’s curiosity, but we definitely don’t recommend this–it’s unprofessional, and looks like spam.  

Respond on time

Make it a personal policy to reply to all emails addressed directly to you. Aim for a 24-hour response time. If you can’t give a full-blown response right away, send a quick email confirming you’ve seen it and you’ll follow with a more detailed reply in a bit.

HubSpot recommends shortening the time frame to 12 hours when it comes to your teammates–they might need your response to continue with their work. For emails from outside the company, you can stretch it out to until end of the week maximum.

The post The Unwritten Rules of Work Email appeared first on Sprout.

Source: https://sprout.ph/blog/the-unwritten-rules-of-work-email/