Anne H. Janzer's Blog, page 9

Writers and Their Voices

I never thought much about my writing voice until I started freelancing as a marketer in the tech industry. I spent years slipping in and out of distinct brand personas and ghost-writing for executives. This work taught me how to shape-shift my voice. Unexpectedly, I discovered it was fun.

Your writing voice is the way your words summon the impression of a human being. Readers sense someone behind nearly everything they encounter.

When we read fiction, we sense characters. We listen in our heads to a poetic voice when reading poems. We hear the sender of text messages. Even when reading marketing copy or interactive with chat bots, we cannot help creating a personality in our heads.

All writing implies a voice behind it.

How do you feel about your voice?

When I ask people about their writing voice, responses fall into three camps:

Authentic, steady writersIntentional shiftersInstinctive adapters

The difference lies in their approach.

Authentic writers

People who don’t identify as writers also don’t think much about voice. When asked, they report writing exactly as they think or speak. (Or, they try to.)

If you know someone like this, you can practically hear them in their words. Even so, these writers may need to clear verbal clutter to make space for their voices. Writing is an imperfect stand-in for thought and speech.

Voice shifters

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some people carefully control how they appear in print.

For ghostwriters and marketers, changing voice is a professional asset. Fiction writers bring their characters to life by writing in their voices.

Other people seem to do it for fun. Ask authors of fan fiction or people who write parodies of well-known authors and works. Writing in a different voice can be freeing.

Instinctive adapters

Most of us shift our writing voice automatically, based on audience and format.

We might have a default voice for professional writing, another for personal emails to friends and family, and a third for that novel we’re working on. The voice emerges from the way we approach the work.

Where do you fall on this spectrum?

How do you feel about your writing voice? Do you even think about it?

Paying attention pays off. If you’re clear about the voice you intend, you’re less likely to undercut it. With practice, you may discover the joy of shifting your voice.

I’m gathering research on how writers feel about their voice. You can help me research this overlooked writing topic.

Take this quick survey (6 questions) about how you feel about your writing voice.

Take the survey here.

I will share the results in this blog and send them if you request them.

Why voice matters, especially now

If you’re not overwhelmed with news ChatGPT yet, then you’re doing an excellent job of staying off social media and blogs—congrats!

The writing community is bubbling with both excitement and anxiety about the capabilities of artificial intelligence to write for us. AI does a fairly good job of writing low-level, humdrum content that powers the world.

In a world of AI-based writing, human voice becomes a premium. There’s never been a better time to understand and fine tune the voice you’re projecting in your writing, because it sets you apart from the bots.

February Writing Challenge

Most months have 30 or 31 days. Take around 10 percent away and what do you get?

February!

Here’s the challenge this month: can you trim your writing by 10 percent?

Important emailsBlog postsSocial media posts

Yes, even social media.

Find the evidence in the study Causal Effects of Brevity on style and Success in Social Media published in the Communications of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. Researchers found that social media messages were more successful when edited down. The sweet spot was 10 and 20 percent shorter.

Look at your writing this month. Can you trim the words by 10 percent?

About these challenges

Here’s the theory behind these challenges: small, incremental improvements that become habits pile up.

These challenges ask you to practice different aspects of the craft one month at a time. By year end, your writing skills will have improved.

Let me know if it works!

Previous monthly challenges

January Writing Challenge

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Published on February 01, 2023 07:04

Playing with Short Sentences

Yellow pencils of different lengths on white background.

If you write long, elaborate sentences with multiple asides or interjecting clauses—and many of us do—you might experiment with a sprinkling of shorter sentences.

Short sentences give big ideas room to breathe.

When I work with nonfiction authors on their manuscripts, I frequently ask the authors to break up a few of their longer sentences into shorter ones.

The authors are smart people, explaining complex ideas. The writing mirrors their thought processes, guiding the reader through the author’s reasoning.

But when too many length sentences chain together, the reader has to pick their way through the prose carefully. Adding a few short sentences clears a path for the reader’s comprehension.

If you love writing long sentences, here are three reasons to break a few of them up in your work.

1. Readers will understand you more easily

If you ever see a “reading level” assigned to writing, it’s probably based on the Flesch Reading Ease assessment.

This score sounds very scientific, but in fact it’s a simple calculation based on two factors:

Number of words divided by sentences (or average sentence length)Number of syllables divided by words (or average word length in syllables)

This equation tells us something important: Shortening your sentences makes your work easier to read.

Longer sentences require readers to dedicate brain cycles to navigating the sentence, rather than appreciating your ideas. The more complex your ideas, the simpler the sentence structure should be.

2. Avoid common grammar glitches

Many thorny grammatical issues only crop up in long sentences.

Problems with parallel structure in a sentenceVerbs that don’t agree with their subjects (because those subjects appeared so far back that you’ve forgotten what they are)Overuse of semicolons, dashes, and commas

Sure, you can fix each of those problems individually. But break that tricky sentence into two or more, and your grammar challenges disappear!

3. Your strongest ideas will pop

If you want an idea to shine, don’t cram it into a sentence with a lot of other clauses. Give it its own home so the reader can savor it.

Look at the opening sentences of this post. I started with a long-winded sentence, then isolated the key idea in a short one: Short sentences give big ideas room to breathe.

Rhythm is key. If all of the sentences were short, then it wouldn’t work as well.

While you write, consider the rhythm of the work in the reader’s inner ear.

Caveats

Don’t go overboard and chop everything down. Sentence length affects the rhythm of your writing—aim for a blend of long and short. Keep the reader engaged with a changing cadence.

Online writing needs shorter sentences overall. To make your ideas pop online, you might isolate that short sentence in its own paragraph.

A quick experiment with sentence length

Here’s an exercise that a number of writers find super helpful.

Take something you’ve written and put one sentence on each line.
If a sentence has multiple clauses,
Make each clause its own line.

Like this.

You’ll see the rhythm of your sentences with this strategy.

Give it a shot!

(This exercise is inspired by Verlyn Klinkenborg’s excellent book Several Short Sentences about Writing.)

Deliberate writing practice

You may start learning how to write in school, but that’s only the beginning of the story.

As long as you read and write—from emails to social media posts—you learn. You feed your sense of the written language and practice your craft.

Sounds great, right? But “passive” learning presents two problems:

Without focus, you don’t make rapid progress. Worse, you often learn or practice the wrong things.

Even if you write a lot, you may reinforce habits that don’t serve you well. Eventually, you you can feel “stuck” in your writing voice.

Pay attention to the writing habits you form. Over time, habits rewire our brains and reinforce themselves.

If we spend our days reading bloated corporate memos and spouting marketing jargon, we reinforce those lessons.

If we our only writing happens during quick exchanges on messaging apps, how do we build the skills we need to write our dreamed-of fantasy novel?

But wait, you may say. I get paid to read those bloated corporate memos and write short emails and messages. What should I do?

Here’s where the fun part comes in: make ordinary life your writing masterclass.

Deliberate practice

Anders Ericsson was a psychologist who studied expertise and high performers. He introduced the concept of deliberate practice as a key to expertise. (You can find more in his book Peak.)

According to Ericsson, practicing for 10,000 hours is not the path to expertise. What and how you practice matter.

When we choose a specific, challenging but reachable skill and practice it with intention, we are more likely to make substantive progress. (Feedback and coaching accelerate the growth.)

How do you add deliberate writing practice to a life that is already full?

Look for small opportunities and target your time.

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you can find elements of the craft in the work you do regularly.

Think of it as a puzzle—one that will be fun to crack!

Building the practice into your life

Pick nearly any writing skill you’d like to improve. How can you fit it into your daily writing life?

Look at the work you do and ask yourself questions like:

Can I include an element of suspense in an email to the team?Can I practice dialog in emails to my family?Is there room for a three-sentence story in this presentation?

If your work life doesn’t leave room for this kind of exploration, set aside a journal and focus on a specific aspect of your craft.

For example, you might dedicate 10 minutes every evening to write an anecdote from the day, tuning your storytelling skills. Or draft a daily observation to focus on your descriptive skills. Perhaps challenge yourself to identify one unusual metaphor each day to describe something in your life.

Focus on one skill at a time

If you want to make progress, choose one specific skill to focus on for a period of time. A month would work.

All month, work on that skill. Through targeted repetition, you will start to build better habits.

Take charge of your writing education, but do it with a sense of fun and exploration. You’re not in school, no one is grading you. You’re in charge, so get creative.

January Writing Challenge

Want to work on your writing craft, even if you’re busy with other things? Tackle your skills one month at a time.

Once a month, I’ll suggest a single writing skill to work on.

Focus on it for the month—in your emails, your work or personal writing, your journals, or anywhere you write.

Rotate through different aspects of the craft one month at a time, and you will strengthen your writing skills.

January: Beginnings

We often think about beginnings in January. Use this month to work on the way your writing pieces start.

When you write anything this month, pay extra attention to the start. This includes:

Email subject linesEmail first linesThe first line of a social media postThe introduction to a reportThe beginning of a chapter

As you look at the beginnings, ask yourself a few questions:

Does this compel the reader to continue?

If not, how can I make it more interesting?

If it’s an email, is the about me, or about the recipient? (Hint: try making it about the recipient.)

Start by doing this after you draft, but before you publish or send. As you get more comfortable, you can try to integrate the strong starts into your drafting process.

Do this for a month, and see what happens! Let me know if it makes a difference for you.

If you want to get all the monthly challenges in 2023, use the form below to sign up for my Writing Practices list.

Every other week you’ll get writing-related advice by email.

Once a month, you’ll get this challenge, and the chance to enter a drawing for a writing-related book.

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Published on January 05, 2023 12:29

Writing for Two Reading Modes

Serving the Biliterate Brain

Two dogs—one looking at a book, one looking at a laptop

Here’s an experiment: Try reading an 18th of 19th-century novel today. It could be Austen, Dickens, Eliot—choose your favorite.

Even if you loved the book years ago, you may find you have to slow down your brain to get into it. You need to switch reading modes, and it may feel awkward at first.

You have more than one way of reading.

Maryanne Wolf is author of Reader, Come Home and a scientist and scholar who studies reading. She coined the term the biliterate brain, referring to digital reading and deeper reading.

Digital reading consumes much of our time. We navigate a sea of digital content by skimming and filtering, extracting what we need despite distractions.Deeper reading is more immersive or reflective. It happens more often with physical books and printed matter.

Most of our ordinary reading lives in the digital realm. This reading is valuable and important, and the neural pathways in charge of digital reading get plenty of practice.

Deeper reading is becoming rarer, but precious.

In her excellent book Reader, Come Home, Wolf argues that we lose proficiency at deeper reading unless we specifically practice or cultivate it. Our brains, seeing those deep reading pathways neglected, simply repurposes them for skimming.

As readers, we need to be aware of when we are deploying the different systems.

What does this mean for writers?

Most people are better at skimming than reading

Rock skipping over surface of water, seen from the wise. Words:

When we write for online formats (website copy, emails), we are dealing with the first type of reading: surface skimming. We should package the information accordingly.

Whether emails, blog posts, or online articles and web pages, support that digital reading and help people know when to dive in further with:

Careful subject linesShort sentencesShort paragraphsSubheadings

How about writing books? You might think that these rules don’t apply.

But the world of book readers is made up of people like you and me, who are spending less and less time in deep reading.

Write for all of your readers

Many people, when they set out to write a book, pull on their “writerly” hat. They think of the classic books they have read, or that sit on their shelves.

They write books for immersive readers.

But remember: Your reader’s brain is biased toward the online reading mode. That’s what it practices, day in and day out.

If you want people to luxuriate in our sentences or wrestled with tough concepts, lead or tempt them back into that deeper reading experience.

Not everyone will get there. Your readers may be distracted, tired, or overwhelmed.

Decide what to do about that. Do you leave them by the side, or give them guideposts?

Sign along a trail in the forest. Words: Distracted readers need guideposts. Depositphoto

Genre matters

When people read fiction, they want to become absorbed in the book. Even then, you need to bring the reader into that world carefully. Reward their time, engage their curiosity or their senses—don’t take their attention for granted.

Nonfiction might serve both the surface-level and the deeper readers—sometimes both in the same book.

If you’re writing prescriptive (how-to) books, consider the reader’s mental state as you adjust your writing voice.

If you’re writing a book for parents of young children, assume they are sleep-deprived and stressed, and unable to read deeply. Bring the most important concepts to the surface clearly.If readers might find your subject stressful (the tax code, for example, or making a job transition), the same thing applies. Help people get what they need, and give them options for diving deeper.

Even if your audience does want to immerse themselves in your story, remember that second reading mode might be harder for them than it was even a decade ago. Remove any unnecessary obstacles. Show them some grace.

Want to go deeper?

Listen to Maryanne Wolf talk about deep reading on the Ezra Klein podcast.

Read Wolf’s book Reader, Come Home.

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Published on December 13, 2022 11:05

Three Life Lessons from Writing Books

Blank piece of paper on concrete, with title Three Life Lessons for Writing Books

Writing a book is a major endeavor. When you reach the end, like the traveler after a long journey, you look for the stories or lessons in the experience to share with others.

Those stories hold wisdom that applies beyond writing.

I’ve written six books, and coached or supported many authors on theirs. A few patterns emerge from these varied experiences—simple lessons that apply to all kinds of endeavors.

Here are the top three lessons I’ve absorbed from working as an author and book coach. Perhaps they’ll resonate with you as well.

Rule 1. Honor the time it takes

Writing a worthwhile book, like most meaningful work, requires time.

Perhaps you can write a book in a weekend, but should you? You’ll likely cheat both yourself and your reader if you do so.

In my survey of over 400 nonfiction authors, more than half said that writing their book took longer than they expected.

Graphic showing survey results about time to write book

Survey: How much time did it take you to write your book?

Why is this? Are nonfiction authors rotten planners?

All human beings are terrible at planning complex projects. It’s the planning fallacy in action — we can’t envision the many unexpected ways things go wrong.

Sometimes, the delays make a positive long-term impact.

We realize we need more research or uncover a new angle to exploreFeedback from early readers leads us to expand or change the contentRevision and editing takes more time than we planned

These activities improve books. We should not resent the time they take.

When you acknowledge and give tasks the time they deserve, you’ll avoid rushing into careless mistakes.

My mantra: This will take as long as it needs to—not longer.

Rule 2. You can’t control everything

The longer your writing project, the greater the chances that the world will intervene.

You might have to put your work aside if you get sick, or if a fantastic opportunity arises. We can’t control an uncertain world.

We also rely on other people who face the same uncertainties. Too often, our planning doesn’t account for their schedules:

A subject-matter expert is slow to respond to questionsYour early readers are busy and take a long time to deliver feedback

We often assume everyone will drop everything and work full-tilt on our project without experiencing their own scheduling glitches. Best-case scenario planning rarely plays out.

When publishing, a small team of people may be involved in your book. You want others involved in your project to observe rule #1: giving the work the time it deserves, rather than rushing through it.

How do we live in a world where things outside our control take too much time?

Ease up on the pressure and assume that something will take longer than it should. Plan for obvious delays and glitches ahead of time. Have a Plan B (and C, and D). Leave time in the schedule for the unexpected.

Yes, set deadlines. But when you accept, with certainty, that something will inevitably delay your deadline, good things happen.

You’ll relax. You might even enjoy the process.You’ll have better relationships with others. People prefer working with someone who is not in crisis mode.If everything goes to the original plan, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.Rule 3. Be impatient for the work, not the result.

As a book coach, I often talk with people as they embark on writing their books. These writers generally fit into two groups:

Some are eager to get to writing. They have pages of notes and ideas bubbling up in their heads.Others show up with aggressive schedules and a sense of urgency to be done and published, but see the work ahead as daunting.

Those in the first group generally meet their schedules, or come close. Their projects move quickly.

Those in the second group are at risk. In this mindset, almost anything can knock them off their course. Inevitable delays discourage them, because they are impatient to be done, rather than doing.

Writing goes quickly when you’re committed to the process, not when you’re impatient.

Aspiring authors in the second group may simply need to shift their mindset and get excited about the work. Or, they may need time to feed and incubate their idea, like a sourdough starter.

Applying writing lessons to life

Not to get too philosophical, but these maxims apply pretty well to the rest of life. Try them out:

Rule #1: When doing a tedious but important task, honor the time it requires. Remind yourself: This will take as long as it needs.

Rule #2: Accept and plan for uncertainty beyond your control. Create contingency plans so that glitches don’t become crises.

Rule #3: When you focus on the process instead of the result, you may find joy in the journey. Oddly enough, you may finish more quickly.

These rules help me with all kinds of tasks, from doing the careful, detailed work of publishing books to the long-term effort of building and sustaining relationships. See what they do for you.

Shopping for Words

Image of words: DepositPhotos

Words are clothing for ideas. What’s in your wardrobe?

Do you use the same lexicon of drab verbs and adjectives that you’ve always used? That’s like wearing the same sweatpants and t-shirt every day. It gets boring, for you and the people around you.

If you want your ideas to shine, dress them appropriately for the occasion. Examine the words you choose and make sure they fit. Want to attract the eye? Give your writing a bit of bling.

The Writing Wardrobe Challenge

Maybe it’s time to update your usual word choices. We can all do this, no matter where we are in our writing careers.

Here’s my writing wardrobe challenge:

Commit to improving at least one word choice in everything significant that you write—whether a chapter of a book, a blog post, or an email to your team.

Start with a single word in each piece. Tiny shifts in word choice can have a major impact on the reader.

Look through your writing for a dull, lifeless verb or a boring adjective like big or new. And then go shopping for something better.

Here are a few ground rules for this exercise.

First, have fun

If you remember cramming long lists of esoteric words as a student, you may shudder at the idea of using a thesaurus. Even the word thesaurus sound stuffy or arcane.

Traditional schooling, with its vocabulary lists and specialized terminology, can kill the joy in word shopping.

Let’s change our approach to choosing words. Instead of a dusty reference tome, think of the thesaurus (whether print or online) as a shop stocked with sparkling words for your selection.

As with clothing, you can shop in the real world (the print thesaurus) or online. I love the online ones because it’s so easy to follow links. Your word processing software probably already includes a thesaurus function.

My favorite is the online site WordHippo. Its pink hippo mascot makes me feel like I’m on a safari rather than in the reference section. (In my imagination, it’s photo safari, not a shooting one. No words were injured in creating this post.)

Make sure whatever you use offers a lot of choices (a plethora, perhaps!)

Type your targeted replacement word into the online thesaurus and scan the results. Examine the adjacent options that aren’t quite right. You might follow another word on an entirely different word safari. That’s fun, and can fuel your creativity.

As you shop, keep the following guidelines in mind.

Think strong vs. long

Unless you’re writing for academic purposes, don’t try to impress readers with long words if you see better, shorter alternatives. Too many multi-syllable words make your writing dense. (The word for that is sesquipedalian.)

Look for a simpler, stronger word instead of an impressive, graduate school word.

For example, consider replacing utilize with use, indeterminate with unknown.

Don’t sacrifice all the long words in your writing, of course. Keep the ones that fit perfectly or that you enjoy. But pay attention to how many jumbo words you pile into the prose.

Consider replacing options with simple two-word phrases: Spell out could replace explicate.

Do you want to be precise or poetic?

Sometimes you want to find the word that exactly represents what you’re saying. Precision matters. A thesaurus can help you find the word that exactly fits what you want.

But you might want to experiment with words that have multiple meanings s—long as you understand those meanings.

For example, pay attention to what you feel when you read the following sentence:

Approach the writing process with grace.

The word grace might refer to elegance, kindness, mercy, even the prayer said before a meal. Almost any of those nuances work in this sentence. The reader will construct the meaning that works best for them.

When you used nuanced words, your writing takes a poetic turn.

Search with your ears, too

Do you hear an inner voice reading aloud in your head as you read silently? According to a survey by psychology professor Ruvanee Vilhauer, nearly 88 percent of “hear” inside our heads as we read.

So, pay attention to sound of a word.

Look for verbs that have a real presence on the page. Short words that end with a strong consonant jump out: plonk, wart, muck, thud.

Hard-to-pronounce may slow the reader down. They’re like speed bumps in the writing road.

For example, people may stumble when reading ignominious if they have to think of how to pronounce it. Shameful is easier. Or, replace hegemony (where does the accent land?) with authority, rule, or control, depending on the situation.

Dig through your own closet

Have you ever cleaned out your closet and found something that you love, but forgot you had? (Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this!)

Shopping for words can be a similar experience.

Your replacement word doesn’t have to be new to you. Perhaps you hadn’t thought of using this word in this context.

Consider metaphorical options: you might trumpet your success, or slither into the room.

Expand your wardrobe

Have fun. See what you find. Mess around.

As you make this part of your writing practice, you’ll find that a richer variety of words start appearing as you write. You might just add new favorites into your usual rotation.

Growing as a Writer

Cross-section of an old, large tree trunk with annual rings and cracks.

You probably know that the rings in a tree stump tell you the tree’s age was when it was cut down. But do you read those rings for stories of hardship and community?

Wide rings tell a tale of growth and abundance. Tightly packed, narrow rings betray years with little productive growth. Yet the tree kept growing.

The story of the trunk doesn’t belong to this tree alone. In forests, trees communicate with and support each other through underground networks of roots and fungus. They exchange nutrients and moisture.

Today’s solitary giant may owe its very existence to a boost from the network when it was a scrappy sapling, blocked from the sun by the high canopy. In its maturity, it fed nutrients back into the network, sharing its surplus rather than racing for the sky.

What can trees can teach us about writing, output, and growth?

Learning from the trees

As long as we write, we grow.

We polish skills and build our craft. In some phases, we may not publish much—or anything at all. Nonfiction writers can spend years researching or learning about their topics. And life often makes other demands on our time.

Years ago, I put aside dreams of writing a book for various reasons. I continued in my marketing career, nagged by that sense that I wasn’t a “real” writer.

(It’s remarkable how many people feel they are not “real” writers when engaged in careers that depend on writing. Where is this “real” that we chase? Isn’t getting paid to write and publishing work that people read enough? But, I digress.)

Yet in the years that followed, with everything I wrote, I strengthened my craft: summoning sentences, wrestling words, tinkering with tone, and envisioning the needs of my readers.

If an omniscient surveyed everything I’d written since college, I hope they would see a writing voice strengthening like the trunk of a tree, even as it branches out and changes course.

What does your long-term writing growth look like? It’s easy to lose sight of how far we’ve come if we’re craning our necks upward to where we want to be.

If you’re in a narrow-growth-ring year, when conditions don’t allow major writing projects, that’s okay. Learn from the trees and keep growing.

Use your time to build skills

Trees are patient.

Take advantage of any writing you do to strengthen your craft. Even if you’re not working on a book you dream of writing, you can tinker.

For example:

If you want to write stories, start a journal in which you practice short anecdotes. No one needs to see it but you.Insert a snippet of dialog into an email or blog pot. Recreate what someone has said and see what that feels like.In any work-a-day email or writing, challenge yourself to find and replace a single boring verb with a stronger or less expected one. Instead of “sharing the quarterly results,” see what else you can do with them: celebrate, chronicle, trumpet, reveal, circulate, air, spread the word… the list goes on.

Small efforts, practiced daily, accumulate over time.

Why not make the everyday world your writing workshop?

Tap into the writing network

Like that tree in the forest, you are not alone. If you want to grow, learn from the network.

Read other books in your genre and beyond. Read with attention and notice what the authors do. Could you experiment with a similar technique? Notice what inspires you and what you would choose to do differently.

Connect with other authors. Follow people slightly further along than you in their writing careers, as well as the big-name ones. Subscribe to their newsletters and listen to them on podcast interviews. You won’t copy what they do, of course. But you might learn a few things.

Give back to the network, if you can. Review books, volunteer as a beta reader for authors in your genre, and support other authors. Balance this work with your own writing.

These activities will support you as you write.

Keep writing

Most of all, keep writing—something, anything, for yourself or for others.

Five to ten minutes of writing in a journal every day is powerful, even if it produces nothing worth publishing. It trains your brain to notice the rest of the day. It helps you practice the skills of sentence construction. And it reinforces your commitment to writing.

Because finally, to grow as a writer, you must write.

Using emojis at work and beyond

Image: DepositPhoto

Ever since writing a book about business emails last year, I’ve increased my use of emojis. I sprinkle them into LinkedIn messages, texts, emails—even blog posts!

A new Adobe study suggests that I’m not alone, and it’s not only in personal messages.

Of the 5,000 US-based emoji users surveyed, more than half have increased their use of emojis at work in the past year. Perhaps with less face-to-face interactions, we need more ways to make ourselves emotionally present with others.

The business case for emojis

According to the Adobe study, emoji use has grown far beyond personal texts. The research reveals compelling for using them in work-related communications.

These are a few of the reported benefits (with the percentage of users citing them) for using emojis on the job:

Strong feeling of connection to teams (63%)Sharing ideas quickly (79%)Fostering creativity (58%)

Here’s a surprise: more than half of the respondents are more receptive to taking on a task if the request included an emoji! (Next time you want to ask someone to review a document, add an emoji to the request!)

We write to communicate both ideas and tone, and to connect with our readers. Those tiny graphics, used wisely and with restraint, help us achieve those goals.

Emojis make your tone visible

Most of us are terrible at interpreting tone in written communications like email. The shorter the message, the more likely we are to mis-read it.

And when we’re under stress, we’re more likely to interpret things through a negative, stress-induced filter.

Emojis to the rescue!

The Adobe study shows that the most popular emojis in the US are:
, , , ,

They signal things like, “You’re funny,” or “great point” or “that’s sad.” They extend support, encouragement, and empathy in much less space than it would take to do with words.

Strengthening human connection with emojis

A majority of U.S. emoji users (88%) report they are more likely to feel empathetic toward someone if they use an emoji.
Future of Creativity Report by Adobe

That’s fascinating! Introducing small emotional cues into our writing appears to trigger more empathy from the reader.

And here’s another benefit in a world of remote work: many in the Millennial and Gen Z generations say that emojis make them feel more connected to colleagues they have yet to meet in person.

Why would we neglect technology that helps us connect with others and clarifies our tone?

Advice for the emoji-resistant

Try an experiment this week. Start adding one or two emojis to emails and social media posts.

Choose safe, well-known symbols to avoid misunderstanding. If you’re using them to communicate emotion, choose straightforward emotions rather than nuanced ones. (See that list of favorites above.)

And make sure the emoji echoes the tone of the words themselves.

How does it feel? Does clicking the smiling face make you smile yourself?

I sometimes find that using emojis lifts my own emotions. Might it have the same effect on the recipient?

Advice for emoji enthusiasts

The Adobe research gives you data to back up your use for the doubters. But it also highlights areas of caution.

The report notes that about half of the people surveyed in the U.S. use emojis for meanings other than their intended meaning. So, as with your words, be clear.

First, remember emoji use varies with generations, context, and even geographic areas. Consider your recipient’s context, and whether they will understand what you’re writing.

Some people may struggle to decipher them on their phones, much less understand what you’re trying to say. You don’t want people to feel like they’re missing a joke or squinting at a screen to decipher your meaning.

A long string of emojis can be daunting. If your reader uses text-to-speech translation, they’ll have to listen to all the descriptions—and they will not thank you for that.