Emojis and the Professional Writer

Let’s talk emojis.

Do you use them? Some people can convey a whole message with few words and two lines of hearts, flowers, turkeys, and high fives; others never use emojis except the “thumbs up” or “okay” signs.

Along with the truncated syntax and double, triple, or even tenfold exclamation mark of internet-speak, emojis show how language is changing. What do we do with this trend as writers? Do we incorporate modern syntax in dialogue of modern novels? Embrace the current slang in our articles to reach readers? What happens if we ignore the bunny-like multiplication of exclamation points in our social media posts and other platform interactions online?

First, as you probably know by now, I tend to be a language purist. But I recognize several benefits that come from emojis, along with the problems they and internet speech bring.

The Emoji Urge
When you’re writing to someone, do you often feel the urge to add a smile or wink? Do you add a laughing face “just to be sure they know I’m kidding,” and catch yourself wondering if you’re slipping and losing your ability to communicate well? I know I have. What’s up with that? Why do we feel drawn to fall back on these miniscule representations instead of clarifying with our words? Well don’t panic, because there is a good explanation!

Chances are that if you are female, you feel this urge more often than if you are male—although artistic men and men with a high emotional intelligence feel it, too. As Mandy Smith reminds us, despite a current cultural predisposition for leeriness toward male/female differences, “studies of fiber pathways in the brain show men naturally think in more centralized ways, whereas women often consider information across both rational and intuitive ways of thinking.”[1] This connective wiring means that women tend to “think strategically across many layers of the situation which includes both facts and feelings.”[2]

In face-to-face communication, and to a certain extent on the telephone, tone and body motion (kinesics) account for 60 to 90 percent of the full meaning picked up by the listener. If you answer a phone call from your mother, you immediately know not only that it’s her, but also what mood she is in. Standard writing usually removes these indicators of feelings, reducing communication to a symbolic language system. When we feel an urge to add an emoji to make sure the receiver knows what we’re saying and how we’re saying it, we’re instinctively trying to write more relationally.

Or, as Jennifer Szalai explains in her review of Gretchen McCulloch’s new release Because Internet,

Formal language … is mostly disembodied; informal language isn’t. When we talk to a friend, we deploy gestures and facial expressions to give more context to what we’re saying; on the phone, without visual cues, our vocal inflections, volume and laughter do the job. … Internet speech has been evolving “to restore our bodies to our writing,” as certain online conventions have changed over time.[3]

So don’t despair! That urge to add emojis to your formal language means we want written language to do more than it often has in the past, and we want to connect with people. This is a good thing.

Emojis give us an avenue of full body communication, even electronically. So how do we tackle writing in contexts where emojis are inappropriate? When you’re writing a professional email or an educational blog and you’re just dying to stick in a 😉? The solution is recognizing when we are using the little icons as a crutch in place of better writing and when their whisper is really a coach reminding us how to communicate well.

The Emoji Crutch: a call to revise
Emojis are great for quick messages to friends, and they communicate emotions (and more) quickly, yet using this pictorial shorthand frequently reduces our practice time for communicating relationally through smart prose. Emojis become a crutch that prevents us from forcing words to hold their emotional weight.

I’ve recognized that when I’m writing and need to avoid emojis but keep having the urge to add them, most likely what I’m writing is either somewhat ambiguous or potentially traumatizing (because editors do have to critique from time to time), or my intent could be misconstrued. I have to remember, though, if my humor is unnatural, forced, or unclear, no 😄or 😏 will really make it better. Neither will insensitive critique be mitigated by a 😊 or 😜. (But of course, puns should always be followed by a 😉 and a groan.)

Precise syntax can communicate tone and subtext, but few writers are masters of these tools and paintbrushes. We need to take time off the crutches and practice writing with sensitivity and clarity.

The Emoji Coach: a call to relate
I’ve also realized that the urge to include emojis when communicating with those whose feelings we care about teaches us the importance of adding tone, expression, and body language whenever we want the other to know we connect with them. This carries over to writing as well—and not just in narrative and dialogue.

How do you do this if you’re not writing narrative? You can adopt casual language with slang rather than formal expressions, or vice versa. You can build in metaphoric language that gives the reader the sense of what facial and body expressions you might use in person: Writing can feel like jumping into cold pool or wrapping yourself in a cozy blanket; it depends on how you approach the exercise. And you can make sure that the timing and precision of your words convey your intended humor.

In “The False Dichotomy,” Smith writes that just as the wordless, emotional woman with the alabaster oil is misunderstood by the men surrounding Jesus, our society can often dismiss the need to relate in lieu of the need for articulated logic, yet intuitive relating and articulated logic are both forms of helpful cognition, of knowing. And Jesus rewards the woman for her knowing action, when no one else does.

Emojis remind us that society (and the church) is neither male nor female but a blend of dignified, valued humans with complementary leadership gifts. Remembering to relate when we write and not just present an argument will help build community across the male/female wiring spectrum, enabling all of us to engage our whole persons.

The Emoji Gap: a call to use subtext
In narrative, even nonfiction characters never say exactly what they mean. We absolutely must manipulate the body language and tone of our characters if we want to create any realistic subtext—the real message beneath what we say and how we say it.

Emojis often flow into this subtext gap in short texts. The connection between our texts and subtext might look something like the following:

Abby: OK, already. 🙄 I’ll come at🎄. Don’t I always?😇
Last year was only the most miserable Christmas on the planet. How do I get out of this?

Mother: 😥 If you need to visit Chuck’s parents, I understand. It’s not your fault I only have you. 👩‍👧
I know you don’t really want to come. But I will hold it against you for ten years if you stay at your boyfriend’s house and leave me all alone on Christmas morning.

Abby: Mo—ommmm, I said I would come. 🤪🛩 🏠 Or you could come here???
You are insufferable. What are you going to do about sharing me after I get married? You could come visit me so I could use vacation time to really relax instead of trying to appease you for a week.

Mother: I’ll just ship your present. It’s an organizer I saw on television. 😘🧺
No way I’m going there. You throw everything on the floor and leave the dishes for a week. It’s embarrassing.

Abby: Oh hey, Aunt Mabel mentioned that group you like—Puppy People? 🐶 She said they have volunteer spots open this fall!!! 💖💖💖You **really** should look into that.
OMG. You need to find something to do other than watch Home Shopping Network and browsing Amazon.

The trick to writing good dialogue is conveying the subtext through slanted responses and added beats. If you are having trouble knowing how to do this, imagine adding emojis in the dialogue that reveals some of the underlying thoughts and barbs, and then revise the text to give the shorthand sense of the pictures.

A Final Word on Emojis
Language is changing, and language represents how a culture thinks. So if we as writers want to engage our culture, we must understand its use of language, even emojis. Consider how these modern trends will affect your writing, because I know for certain—these cute little icons and multiplying punctuation marks aren’t going away anytime soon.