By the time I saw my friend's Facebook post warning everyone to stay away from the construction zone on Pike Street today, it was too late: I had already spent way too much time muttering under my breath while stuck in that traffic jam in the heat of the afternoon. Good thing ToneCheck doesn't work on muttered imprecations.
I heard about ToneCheck on the radio while I was stuck in traffic, and at first I couldn't believe it. A computer program that checks the tone of outgoing e-mails to make sure you're not being too snarky or angry or sarcastic? Yeah, right.
But then I got home and tried out the ToneCheck demo (and you can, too--click here). Bob has drafted an e-mail message to Danielle, but before he sends it, he runs ToneCheck to make sure he's using an appropriate tone. Oh no, his message has exceeded his own personal Tone Tolerance! Two sentences are flagged for further attention, both fairly banal: "I trust all is well with you and you're having a great day!" and "It is time to either solidify matters or move on." The second one is labeled "angry," but Bob revises it until it achieves the coveted "contented" crown: "I would like to make sure that you are satisfied with the terms of our agreement."
I agree that the revised sentence sounds less confrontational and more conciliatory, but sometimes it is time to solidify matters or move on, in which case I hope Bob has the sense to reject ToneCheck's suggestions. If ToneCheck can persuade a few people to carefully review what they've written before hitting "Send," it will have performed a valuable service, but it's not going to cure a tone-deaf writer or one who has learned to block out all those nagging reminders about long sentences and incorrectly spelled words. Like we REALLY need ANOTHER mechanical voice hectoring us about what ROTTEN WRITERS we are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ooh, I hit the triple whammy there: the Sarcasm Detector is off the scale, the Exclamation Point Posse is after me, and the All-Caps Cops have are writing up a citation. Maybe I'd better try ToneCheck today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After all, it is time to either solidify matters or move on.
3 comments:
If it could teach students to open with a salutation... hey, a prof can dream!
Here's the language you need to include on your syllabus:
"I will ignore all e-mail messages that do not begin with the phrase 'Salutations, Earthling!'"
That ought to take care of the problem.
I was going for something more along the lines of "Hail, Your Grace!"
But I bet they'd remember the "Salutations, Earthling!" a lot better.
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