The Internet and The English Language By Terence Carter

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The Internet and The English Language By
Terence Carter

• Presented by Dave Rinehart

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Introduction

• With English as the language of choice for the
  Internet you may think that it might improve
  writing, but on the contrary it seems to be
  suffering.

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Example

• how R U?
• i hope things OK. System crashed yesterday,
  possibly fried HDD. if you could, please swing by
  the office tonight to fix it.
• thx!
• Cul8r

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Evolution or Devolution

• The ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency
  Network)
• E-mail and IRC (Internet Relay Chat, or "Chat
  Rooms")

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In Praise of Words

• Informal Tone
• Stenographer's shorthand
• Traditional secretarial contractions and acronyms
  
• Punctuation

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The Invisible Person Syndrome

• Poor Grammar standard
• Why strive for perfection in the English language
  when no one knows or cares who you are?

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Training and Tools

• Lack of Training
• Cutting Corners
• Spelling and Grammar Checkers

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All Things Must Change

• New words in the English vernacular
• carriage, then horseless carriage, and finally
  car
• Conversations unrelated to computer technology
• "being online" or needing "down time," things
  "crashing" and machinery "booting."

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Conclusion

• "net-speak" vs. standard English
• Medium evolves
• Brevity should always be secondary to precision
  and clarity.

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Questions?