Read the article. Four fragments have been removed from the text. Complete each gap (5.1.–5.4.) with the fragment which fits best and put the appropriate letter (A–E) in each gap. There is one fragment which you do not need to use.

HOW DO EMOTICONS AND CAPITALISATION AFFECT PERCEPTION OF EMAIL?

Compared with face-to-face communication, nonverbal cues in email are lacking. But humans are fabulous at generating meaning even when cues are sparse. A group of psychologists from Stanford University have put forward a theory that our motivation for generating meaning is to reduce levels of uncertainty and help predict other people’s behavioural patterns. 5.1. Both of these enable the people we are addressing to predict our behaviour, mood and intentions.

The research on nonverbal behaviour in emails is not as simple as “emoticons are good while capitalisation is bad”. It seems that both writing in capital letters and using emoticons can evoke utterly different responses, perhaps much less polarised in the case of capitalisation, which is normally considered a no-no in emails. However, the usage of capital letters can also communicate excitement and not just senseless shouting. 5.2. Perhaps some of this variability in the perception of capitalisation and emoticons comes down to personality?

Psychologists researched this by asking college students to fill in a personality questionnaire and then read emails from an unknown person. These were simple messages such as requests for copies of academic papers or information about the university. Each participant was randomly assigned to read two out of several differently presented emails. 5.3. The students were then asked to rate the sender’s likeability.

The researchers found that the reader’s personality influenced how emoticons and capitalisation were perceived. Readers high in extroversion and emotional stability were likely to rate the sender’s emails as more likeable if they had correct capitalisation and emoticons. The opposite was also true. For the introverted and emotionally unstable, correct capitalisation and emoticons tended not to affect the sender’s likeability, perhaps even lowering it. These results are interesting but they also raise many more questions. Emoticons may make the sender appear more likeable, but further research is necessary to find out if they also make the sender seem less professional or whether they can make reading bad news less disturbing. In their study, the researchers only used a smiley face in the emails. 5.4. These are just some uncertainties. If more advanced ways of communicating emotion in email become a reality, surely many more questions will have to be answered.

adapted from www.spring.org.uk