Red Means Red

Several times each day I get e-mails through my E-mail Etiquette Web site asking what a sender meant by having only certain text in their e-mail purposely changed to red.

Red is an aggressive color. The term "seeing red" means that someone is mad or so upset that they are seeing red. Not too much is different online when it comes to communicating with the written word.

If in a business letter if you changed only certain words or sentences to red, what would that mean? It would mean you are making a strong point. It would mean you are adding a robust emphasis to those particular terms or sentences. Same goes for e-mail.

And, when you use red, you leave the level of emphasis up to the person on the other side to decide the level of emphasis you may have meant.

Use our wonderful vocabulary to communicate what you mean, your anger or your emphasis. Turning selected text into red is the easy way out and risky at best.