Performance Anxiety

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have what can only be described as a sarcastic wit. My extensive vocabulary gives me the ability to play on words and when those words are performed aloud before a live studio audience--who has the added benefit of seeing my facial expressions and hearing my sardonic tone--the results can be hilarious. Unfortunately, that sarcasm rarely translates into my writing. One of my worst memories is writing an email to a college professor that I had a somewhat informal relationship with (emphasis on the word had). In the email, I chastised him for bragging about spending his summer traveling through Europe while I sweltered in summer classes. To make a long story short--he didn't get the joke. When I told this story to some friends of mine they asked, "Why didn't you just use one of those little smiley faces?" Damn, I thought, why didn't I use one of those smiley faces?
Because I thought it was obvious. I could hear my voice in my head as I composed that email and thought--this is funny. Moreover, I always think of emoticons as informal, unprofessional, even embarrassing. Why should I care if the smiley was unprofessional when I was already writing an unprofessional letter? I didn't consider my writing as a sort of "performance." For me, writing and speaking were two distinctly different acts. That's why I find "Performing Writing, Performing Literacy" so interesting. When they write for comp classes, students write in a vacuum. They rarely see what Fishman (et. all) call the "purposefulness" of writing in a class setting. By combining performance with writing, students may learning to write interestingly and interestedly (230). If they perform their work, they are forced to consider their audience. It is our jobs as instructors then to show them how to channel performance into the written word.
I, for one, have learned my lesson. I keep professional letters strictly professional, but when I need that extra flare, I bring out the emoticon. :)