Emoji-cation: How to use "Emojis" in digital writing

Before, we had just punctuation marks which formally gives more expression to our write-ups and meaning to our conversations. Now, we have emojis, those tiny images that we often prefer to use because it gives a pictorial representation of our feelings, thoughts and expressions.

Presently, there are over 3000 emojis in the world and about 100 frequently used in day-to-day communication. The birth of emojis could be traced to the 90s where punctation marks such as the colon, semi-colon, parenthesis, and some numbers like 0, 8, with some letters considered as "primitive" emojis were used in chatrooms.

:) was used to indicate a smile and, ;) indicated a reaction to a joke or sarcastic comment made. The opening parenthesis usually indicated unhappiness.

It is therefore now lenient to say that the usage of punctuation marks birthed the idea of emojis. However, studies reveal that the invention of emojis could be accredited to Shigeteka Kurita who is considered the founder of the present-day emojis. In 1999, NTT DOCOMO, a Japanese cell phone company, released a set of 176 emojis for mobile phones and pagers. Kurita used Japanese graphic novels and Zapf Dingbats typeface as well as illustrations and pictograms to create the first emoji library.

With the absence of in-person interaction, emojis help lighten up conversations on digital platforms, and social media platforms are not exempted. In fact, people find social media posts with emojis quite engaging and funny. Nonetheless, when they are used excessively in a written content, they could be offensive.

Did you know emoji is the blend of two Japanese words: picture and letter and just a mere coincidence that “emoji” sounds like it was derived from the English word “emotion?

Now that we have gotten acquainted with the history and formation of emojis, let us delve into what brought you here, shall we?

The status quo has made that emojis can only be used in informal conversations. In formal situations, you make use of the punctuation marks. But as a creative and a digital writer it is necessary you are able to identify these emojis and functions before you can integrate them in your writings. Know when to use the Smiley and laughing faces. Instead of using the hyphens to highlight your points or make a list, use the finger emoji pointing rightwards; instead of using a parenthesis to show emphasis on an information, use the finger emojis, pointing rightwards at the beginning and leftwards at the end of a sentence or word.

It is important to know that Emojis are pictorial representation of your punctuation marks.

Have you ever been caught in-between using either an emoji or a punctuation mark? I know you have, countless times. You are not the only one who has got that problem. Many writers also get caught in that web. Some have come up with the idea that it is inappropriate to use both together; it is either you use an emoji or a punctuation mark. How proper is that? Not entirely! That emojis serve as pictorial representations of punctuation marks does not rule out the importance of punctuation marks.

Punctuation marks enables understanding; Emojis provides an additional expression.

Here is the proper way to make use of emojis when writing. When writing and you want to make use of emojis, your punctation marks should come before the emoji. In this manner:

The rule is use your punctuation marks before emojis.

Finally, the essence is to make communication easier, better, fun and engaging.

Thank you for staying through the end of this article!