About the Author:

Melissa Lawhorn is a senior at Indiana University and holder of multiple internships. With multiple internships under her belt, Melissa provides her perspectives and advice for fellow college students to get the most out of their internship experiences. Follow her weekly column in The Internship Chronicles.

Everybody has had that awkward moment where you’re interpreting punctuation in a text or email. Come on, you can tell me…we all do it. That text with the “okay.” or the response to your email where the only answer is a “thank you.” Everybody can also identify with the mistaken recipient, where you’ve sent your message to the person you’re talking about rather than the person you intended to send the message to. Because everybody makes these little mistakes, I’m sharing some things I think would improve EVERYBODY’s communication style online.

• Punctuation matters. I love periods. Really, I do. Every single contact in my phone has a period at the end of their name. Sometimes, though, it just isn’t an appropriate place for a period. Like the examples I’ve shown above, a period frequently implies shortness or anger — probably not the impression you want to send to someone in an email!
• Avoid one word answers. Maybe all you need to do is let your boss know you’ve read an email, gotten a task assignment, or something of the like. Instead of responding with a short “Okay.” or not responding at all, say something more like “Got the task, thanks!” This acknowledges that you received the message, and shows that you’re at least a little happy to have the opportunity to work there.

What mistakes in communication have you made?  What is your advice to avoid those?