I have received many text messages with such fine writing as R-U-There? and C-U-Soon. But a recent article by Lucy Kellaway in the Irish Times reports that the fine art of writing may be returning:
LAST WEEK I received a text message from a colleague that read: “I, sadly, will be late for our meeting; the Underground is running with long delays.”
To find out, she graded the 100 most recently received unsolicited emails from readers, and graded them for style, punctuation and formality. She compared them to a similar test she ran in 2000. What hath nine years wrought?
"The results prove beyond reasonable doubt that the pendulum has swung away from slouchy informality towards correct usage. In 2000, more than a quarter of emails were entirely written in lower case," Kellaway reported. "In the recent batch only one e-mail shunned the capital letter, and that came not from a young techie but from a man who had worked on Wall Street in the 1960s. As his use of language was otherwise impeccable I am inclined to think that the reason for the absence of capitals was that the gentleman was having difficulty operating the shift key."
What else did she find?
In 2000, there was a rich variety in email sign-offs. One of the most common was “rgds”. She described it as "a hateful little abbreviation, insulting in its implication that the writer is too busy to make three extra key strokes for the recipient’s benefit."
Yet in the 2009 group there was only one “rgds”, and instead “Yours Sincerely”, even “Yours Faithfully” have made walloping comebacks.
- The surname has returned. Nearly 40 per cent of her recent emails addressed her as “Ms Kellaway”, “Mrs Kellaway” or “Lucy Kellaway.” Often, before the name came “Dear”. This is firmly back in fashion, while “Hi” and “Hey”, which were both in vogue in 2000, are on the way out.
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