Ask an Expert: The new rules of grammar

Q:  hi. i was wondering if u need any help this summer. i am a studant at [a local prestigious university] and have really strong skills in computers social media marketing etc. i am a hard worker & have great references. thanks! :) jessie

A: No, I didn’t hire Jessie.

Normally, when I receive an email like the one above, with misspellings, typos and a complete lack of grammar, I delete and move on. In this case however, the disconnect between the inexcusably poor email and the school Jessie goes to forced me to give her a double take. I looked at her resume, her references, her experience, and her writing sample, and all were above average.

But I couldn’t get past the laziness of her letter.

Now, before you go and start to call me a grumpy old man, let me agree that the new casualness of the workplace is a welcome trend. I don’t miss my tie and I bet you don’t either. It is also nice to be able to communicate in a more relaxed manner. Indeed, it is equally true that with so many ways to communicate now, and with everything as fast as it is, people write in a shorthand that wasn’t true even a decade ago.

There are likely two reasons for this. The first is texting. Texting inherently lends itself to informality, and as we all text so much now, that is bound to rub off into our work world. It is also probably true that Twitter, with its frustrating 140-character limit, also creates an atmosphere of shortened, casual communication.

When you combine that with the fact that between texting, emails, and social media posts, people are writing more than ever (certainly more than speaking over the phone), it follows that some new rules for grammar are taking hold in the workplace.

Personally, for example, I find that I use an exclamation mark far more often in my writing than I ever used to since I long held firm to the belief that, as F. Scott Fitzgerald noted, putting an exclamation mark at the end of your sentence was akin to laughing at your own joke.

Ha! Boy, are those days over!

Exclamation marks are more necessary now because they have evolved to proclaim a variety of ideas that a writer wants to convey: Friendliness, enthusiasm, happiness, etc. An exclamation mark is now a necessary way to make people feel more relaxed by what you are saying.

Similarly, a few years ago I wrote that using emojis and emoticons are bad form. That rule has also changed before our very eyes. Just today I received an email from a well-known person and she ended her email with a smiley face. Why? Because she wanted to share in a non-threatening way that my dumb question to her was really OK. Emojis too have become an acceptable way to use grammar as it is intended – to convey an idea.

So, what’s the difference between a friendly smiley face and the email above? For one, there is an egregious spelling error in Jessie’s email, and, happily I suggest, misspelling words in a work setting is still not OK. Similarly, in the email above, the blatant disregard for grammatical conventions signaled something more than “the new casualness.” As I said, it looks lazy. In that vein, consider too the use of “i” vs. “I.” That is also a case of crossing the line. Please my friends, stop using “i"; right now and forever more.

So, just what are the new rules of grammar? It is tough to say as they are still emerging. Yes, being all friendly and casual is mostly fine, but remember that it is important to have what you write taken seriously. A good rule of thumb is this: Make sure that you are using language and grammar to precisely convey your intent. And don’t forget that work is still work.

Even if you are in flip-flops!

Today’s tip: Still best book on writing is one of the oldest, Strunk and White’s, The Elements of Style. This little masterpiece should be required reading for everyone in this era of written communication.

Steve Strauss, @Steve Strauss on Twitter, is a lawyer specializing in small business and entrepreneurship and has been writing for USATODAY.com for 20 years. E-mail: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com. Website: TheSelfEmployed.