Now, plenty of shorthand exists for text messages — so much so, in fact, that those of us who are not of the texting generation need a dictionary to understand some of them. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should make shortcuts when it comes to grammar and spelling.
You may not worry about it so much when you’re texting a friend about getting together after work. Consider this example, though:
You leave a voicemail message for a potential client you’d like to meet for lunch. Said person replies with a text message. You receive the message while you’re at your son’s baseball game, and though you want to reply immediately, you know you are distracted by the game.
My suggestion here: Take your time! Don’t be so excited to type a reply and hit “send” that you completely forget to make sure what you’ve composed reads well. In such instances, it’s far better to remove yourself from a distracting situation and take a few extra minutes to compose a well-crafted text message.
Realize that if you were meeting this potential client in person, you wouldn’t want to start the conversation with, “I’ll be so glad to meet your. Please sut down.”
Sounds extreme, but you get the idea. No professional text is that important that it can’t be thoroughly proofread. Even if you’re simply typing, “How about 12:30 Tuesday?” you can make mistakes. Be sure what you’ve typed is correct, and you’ll be off to a good start with a potential client or anyone else you’re trying to impress.
P.S. Be sure to reserve common texting abbreviations (LOL, IMAO, etc.) for casual texting only!
