stvrueg
New member
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2012
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- American English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
Anyone that has been keeping up with his e-mail has no doubt noticed the little symbols called emoticons. For instance, someone who wants to show that they are in a light mood may use a colon or closing parenthesis to make a happy face. It looks like this, or sometimes this. If a person wants to show disappointment, he may make a colon or opening parenthesis to make a sad face, which usually looks like this. Based on the word emotion, the emoticon helps a person to convey their feelings and moods. Emoticons are especially useful when someone thinks that what they are writing could be misunderstood. They will use an emoticon to show what facial expressions or hand gestures usually show in a face-to-face conversation. Say, for instance somebody writes that he isn’t going to study for an exam because he already knows everything anyway. For that person to be sure that friend understands the humor, they might add a winking emoticon, like this. Emoticons can be fun for informal e-mails among friends and family, but anyone e-mailing their professor or employer should avoid using these symbols.
