In continuing with yesterday's post, I've also decided that writing with emoticons should be verboten here. Prior to their advent writers managed to write with precision without resorting to their use, and if I hope the exercise of keeping a blog to improve my mastery of the craft, then I should also eschew them.
Besides, in keeping with the "becoming a lawyer theme," I doubt that most lawyers employ them in their legal documents:
"The plaintiffs in this case assert that the defendents did willfully and knowingly defraud the plaintiffs of $1 million :-("
Somehow I don't think so.
Even outside the blog I'm trying to avoid using emoticons. It seems that they've become a large crutch making me lazy as a writer. On the other hand, in emails and online chats it may still make sense to use them. It's not worth risking the breakdown of a friendship if the gratuitous use of an emoticon could have avoided the problem entirely.
It was also interesting when I administered the survey for my undergraduate thesis (where I researched usage behavior of the Internet). One respondent, who was clearly an early adopter with regards to the Internet, included a handwritten comment to clarify a multiple choice response, and in the margin, after the comment, wrote a smiley face. Sideways.