Punctuation in Digital Communication—How Can We Convey Social and Pragmatic Information?

The way we punctuate digital communications can provide the same contextual information that is typically communicated through non-verbal cues in face-to-face communication. 

The rules of digital communication (email, text message, etc.) are different from the rules of other written forms of communication. All over the internet, there is debate about how to use the period in digital communication and what the use of the period signifies. However, most people would agree that using a period in digital forms of communication signifies anger or insincerity, and research has explored what the period signifies in digital communications and how it parallels nonverbal cues in spoken communication. 

RESEARCH

In 2016, Danielle N. Gunraj, April M. Drumm-Hewitt, Erica M. Dashow, Sri Siddhi N. Upadhyay, and Celia M. Klin conducted a study titled “Texting insincerely: The role of the period in text messaging.” In this study, they asked participants to rank the sincerity of text messages and handwritten letters that included final periods. The researchers found that participants ranked text messages ending with a period as less sincere and handwritten notes ending with a period as more sincere.

The researchers explain how the period acts as a way to convey pragmatic and social information (tone, intention, etc.) in digital communication, saying, “Our claim is not so much that the period is used to convey a lack of sincerity in text messages, but that punctuation is one of the cues used by senders, and understood by receivers, to convey pragmatic and social information normally communicated through prosody, pauses, gestures, filler words, and eye gaze” (1069).  

In digital forms of communication, it can be difficult to convey intentions to recipients without nonverbal cues like gestures and eye gaze. Instead, the use of different punctuation marks in digital communication can provide insight into the sender’s intention. When it comes to periods, many of the participants ranked the period as less sincere in text messages because they interpreted the tone as being negative.

IMPLICATIONS

This study suggests that using different forms of punctuation can help online communicators better convey their intentions to the recipients of digital messages. With an understanding of how tone, mood, sincerity, etc. are interpreted through digital punctuation in place of nonverbal cues, senders can select appropriate punctuation choices that help generate positive communication with recipients. In the future, researchers have a great opportunity to study how other styles of punctuation can convey pragmatic and social information that is often communicated through nonverbal cues. 

To learn more about the period in digital communication, read the full article:

Danielle N. Gunraj, April M. Drumm-Hewitt, Erica M. Dashow, Sri Siddhi N. Upadhyay, and Celia M. Klin. 2016. “Texting Insincerely: The Role of the Period in Text Messaging.” Computers in Human Behavior, 55, pp. 1067–1075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.003.

—Abby Andrus, Netiquette 

FEATURE IMAGE BY THOM HOLMES

Find more research

Read Darren Gergle and Yoram M Kalman’s (2014) article to learn about letter repetitions in digital communication and how they convey social and pragmatic information: “Letter Repetitions in Computer-Mediated Communication: A Unique Link between Spoken and Online Language.” Computers in Human Behavior 34 (May 2014): 187–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.047. 

Read Krystle Phirangee and Jim Hewitt’s article (2016) to learn about the strategic use of non-verbal cues in online learning communication: “Loving This Dialogue!!!!” Emotions, Technology, and Learning, 2016, 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-800649-8.00010-9.