Rachel Louise Ensign and Alexandra Wexler:
Before the digital era, executives, lawmakers and other important people often communicated via secretaries and press releases. Now they fire off messages from their phones and computers day and night. Voice-to-text and autocorrect functions can make things worse.
Disregarding spelling and grammar in a written conversation can be a power move or a sign of friendliness, or perhaps both at the same time, said Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University.
It conveys: “I’m important, you’re not so I don’t have to bother,” or “We’re so friendly, I don’t have to worry, we don’t stand on ceremony,” she said.
There was a time when a certain level of written formality was expected of people in power. In the 1950s, a CEO sending a letter would most likely speak into a Dictaphone, and the recording would be painstakingly transcribed by a secretary, said Thomas Farley, an etiquette and communications expert who goes by Mister Manners.
“If she made a mistake, she yanked the page out of the typewriter and she started over,” he said.