No doubt about it if you make the extra effort to bold select text in e-mail you are being bold! Don’t underestimate how bolding certain words or sentences can make an otherwise benign statement one with emphasis. To bold only certain terms or phrases certainly makes a point of making a point.
Then, if you turn that bolded word to red text – Yikes! This definitely make things worse and add multiple !!! or ??? and you are clearly upset. Plan on the person on the other side to perceive that emphasis X10 your intent!
Be very sure that this emotional and emphasized tone is what you want to relay before hitting Send. To say after the fact that you “didn’t mean it that way” simply implies you are unable to stand behind your comments and what you did in fact mean to say when you composed that e-mail. Otherwise why did you bold those specific words — why did you change them to red?
Emotionally charged e-mails many times includes bolding of certain words or phrases to make sure the other side is clear about how strongly the writer feels at that time. If you find you are bolding several portions of an e-mail (or hitting the keyboard with a little more oomph) because you do in fact want to make a point, why not wait until the next morning to see if you still feel as strongly?
You will be glad you did…
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I would argue that if info is important enough for the reader, the will get all of the text without the boldface type. If it is not important enough, then should you be sending it anyway?
Hey, Carla Ann:
I agree! Let’s take that one step further… The onus is on the sender to create an e-mail that reflects the importance of the subject at hand to ensure their e-mail get’s read. If the Sender doesn’t feel the e-mail is worth taking the time toinclude the basics of e-mail etiquette, why would/should the recipient feel it is important enough to take the time read?
Judith, I agree with you. If you are that emotionally worked up about something, you should give yourself at least a few hours because I know from personal experience that I always calm down once I clear my head and not think about the situation for a while. However, when I am communicating with friends i will sometimes bold my words for emphasis, but that is a different situation. It is less formal and i can add a smiley face to show i am just being sarcastic since with my friends since i don’t have to be very formal.
Hey, Sabrina:
Sage advice! When we receive an e-mail that causes an emotional reaction, there are all kinds of other things that come into the mix that may cloud or exaggerate the senders original intent. Almost every time that you walk away for a while, clearer heads will prevail — and you’ll be glad you did!
I think that it is definitely a good idea to wait and make sure that you feel that strongly about the issue because once you send it there is no calling it back and it is a lot easier to say things you don’t really mean when your not face to face. I think that instead of putting it in bold you should use better vocabulary and grammar to emphasize your point.
Hey, Mike:
I never bold in e-mails — because, as you state, I choose my words properly. What is ironic is that when you Bold, you’ve lost control of the level of “Bold” the other side will perceive. Nothing good about that!
I agree to a certain extent, but bolding works well and in fact might even be preferable in emails pertaining to important dates, deadlines etc. Work or organization emails will often have bolded text. In professional settings, bold works well as people are bombarded with emails throughout the day. Some people simply want to skim through these types of emails and see the important parts.
I agree with you Carla Ann, but the fact of the matter is that even emails that are important can be even more helpful if things are bolded. If the email is about a conference or meeting.. I literally need to only know key points like what time/place what I need to bring (especially if I already know what the conference/meeting is about)… Now from the point of personal emails, I agree that people will read them no matter if something is bolded or not…
Hey, Jimmy:
Bolding is just fine in the manner you describe — selectively and with discretion. Bolding when done purely for emotional emphasis is when thing can go very wrong…
Thanks for sharing!