Close Reading Surprise...

Close reading is peculiar-- what at first seemed like a perfunctory "check-in" email from a research team manager now appears to be slightly aggravated. I percieve a sense of irritation in the clipped sentences and punctuation (her "See you Wednesday. " seems less friendly and more matter-of-fact than a "See you Wednesday!") and her "Sound good?"seems short and harsh in comparison to the longer, alternate "Does this sound good?" I also note how the sign off comes immediately after a question-- obviously she is not asking us if this sounds good because she wants an answer, she is asking either for added emphasis (this is how it is, it better be ok with you now) or in attempt to make the message more student friendly.

The phrase "forty minutes should be adequate most weeks" strikes me immediately. Obviously she does not believe forty minutes will be enough time, as denoted by the "SHOULD" (as opposed to "will"), the "ADEQUATE" (vs. "plenty"), and the qualifier "MOST WEEKS," which indicates that there will be weeks in which we do not finish in the allotted time. Following this she adds that "when we need to go over into the noon hour those who have other obligations can leave early." The word "NEED" jumps out at me, these two phrases subtly scream (is that an oxymoron?) that the time slot is too small.

This phrase brings up a second issue with the word "those." It seems to be a deliberate attempt not to incriminate any individual (as opposed to "Emily can leave early") and yet expresses her displeasure by its stiffness and formality. Instead of directly addressing each of us with the word "you," she has chosen the word "those," which signals distance. This sentence also includes the phrase "other obligations," an interesting choice of words. I now wonder what constitutes an obligation in her eyes? Another class? A doctor's appointment that could be rescheduled? A lunch I've planned with a friend before recieving this email?

I also note the bolding of the meeting times and the way she has including the two zeros after 12:00 rather than 12 or the word noon. I feel this double emphasis (the bolding and the detail of the numbers) conveys a sense of exasperation and a sharp insistence that we understand the times and the restrictions these start and end times place on our meeting...The way in which she writes it, it appears every minute in between 11:20 and 12:00 has a particular significance and should be maximized.

Another formatting issue is the way she has spaced the "See you Wednesday" from the rest of the email. The content of the message is essentially over with the "Sound good," is the purpose of the Wednesday comment a) to remind us that we do in fact need to meet on Wednesday (thus further emphasizing the fact that our meetings start this week); b) to indicate that the "Sound good?" was rhetorical and she does not want us to answer it, we will be seeing her Wednesday and that is final; or c) to fulfill some societal norm of politeness, or the idea that every message needs a sign-off? Or is it possible the intention of that phrase was all three of the above?

In a way I now feel like this interpretation is oversensitive. Perhaps this was a routine logistics email, and dissecting it I lost the context and focused on unintentional slants in the writing. But I must say, it's interesting how noting the formatting and certain word and punctuation choices changes how I feel about the message.