A site visitor writes:
Is it acceptable to emphasize a point in an email with quotes? For example: The people on the Board are “elected” not appointed.
Anything you can do to ensure your intent and the meaning of your comments come through as intended is O.K.
With that said, I don’t think the above is an example of emphasis. Instead I would take that as more along the lines of insinuating that the fact they were elected in lieu of being appointed makes a difference somehow — with a bit of sarcasm. Is that what you intended?
Nuances of perception with the written word in plain text can be tricky. Sarcasm should be avoided if at all possible as it is subjective and open to interpretation by the other side.
What I do for emphasis is use forward slashes, for example:
It is not that I care, it is that I care /too much/.
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The quotes around “elected” make it look like the board members are not elected at all – It is something else entirely that’s just called an election.
As an example, if I sign my name John “Big Red” Smith, it means people might call me “Big Red” but its not really my name.
So, please, think before you put quotation marks around something. They should not be used for emphasis.
Here is a site dedicated to paoking of such quotes:
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
Hey, Anthony:
Thanks for the tip and link!