Negotiating Silence

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Andrew, Jr.

How do you read a poster's tone of voice in a thread?

Originally Posted by apretty

by paying close attention to the details: content, choice of words, word usage, as well as punctuation. much like reading.

Actually, it's not very easy (especially with people you don't know well, I'd imagine.)

"How good are you at guessing the tone of voice of the emails you receive? Can you tell when someone is being sarcastic, serious or is joking?
Most of us think we can do this about 90% of the time. However, according to psychologists Dr. Nicholas Epley (University of Chicago) and Dr. Justin Kruger (New York University), who published their research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (membership required to access), we get it wrong 50% of the time. Those are the same odds as tossing a coin."

http://email-overloaded.com/2006/07/...tone-of-voice/