Seeing Red?

When Senders change certain verbiage within an e-mail to the color red, they are making a point -- and a strong point at that! The use of red to make emphasis is an extra effort taken by the Sender to ensure the Recipient understands how strongly they feel about the topic at hand.

Red is so often used as a tool to emphasize only certain points that many (handfuls) each day ask me "What did they mean by using red for certain words in their e-mail?" Usually followed by "Were they yelling at me?"

The Sender meant to make a point, to add strong emphasis and wanted to ensure those words in particular caught your attention. Yes, you could say that they were using a louder voice -- but not yelling at you as typing in all caps would indicate. Now, typing in all red caps without a doubt reflects the Sender is clearly upset and unmistakably wants you to know that.

Red has a long history of being an aggressive color. For the ancient Romans, a red flag was a signal for battle. Because of its visibility, stop signs, stoplights, brake lights, and fire equipment are all painted red. To “see red” is to be angry.

So, if you are "seeing red" know that the Sender clearly wanted to make a point to you -- no need to wonder what they meant by doing so. ;-)