School language and online language

[rowand]

The language that students are taught to use in school is all about correct spelling and grammar and using complete sentences. This is the more formal way to communicate. Most people will only use this when they are making a formal, written composition, writing to impress someone who they respect, writing to someone they don't know, or to someone with a higher status. However, when people are writing to their friends and or equals, in an informal situation, they often write 'casually.' They may not use punctuation or capitols. They use abbreviations for words and phrases, and will generally ignore grammatical mistakes.

[emmaf]

I think there is a huge difference between the way I talk on line, and the way I talk and write in class. On line, i don't capitalize. Ever. I also use wtf?, ikr?, b/c, and other such things. I don't use lol though, unless I am actually laughing out loud. I try to use proper grammar and spelling in most of my posts and chats though. It's actually hard for me to understand people who don't. I get mixed reactions to my mixed way of talking. People have come to expect either full out, completely correct or horrid misspellings and abbreviations so long you can't tell what they are. However, almost no one I know offline use abbreviations, and if they do, it's mostly ironically. Most of us know the time and place.

[jhm]

Language used in school and language used over the internet are often very different. While sometimes formal emails may be grammatically correct, most of communication over the internet is informal and not grammatically correct. People using the internet to communicate often use shortened words or phrases to get their point across faster. In the case of texting, saying things like "be right back" or "I jolly well thought that joke you made was hilarious" take very long especially with the old phones that didn't have full keyboards for texting. Logically phrases like brb and lol came into use to help people text faster. They also are now used on the computer to write faster, even though most people of our generation can type faster than they can write. In school, language is always expected to be proper. Papers with misspellings and shortened phrases are looked down upon, and grammatically correct writing is expected from every student.

And Dylan, thanks for that link.

[alexc]

There are multiple differences between the two languages, but perhaps the two most important ones are variety of style and variety of perception. In our taught spoken language, the fact that we have our voices limits both of these. First of all, we all develop a specific style of speech that we use when talking to someone without a script in front of us, which most of the time follows all of the rules of grammar that we are taught in school. We always have a specific way of conveying what we are thinking, and the only thing that varies in most cases is the thing that we say. This ties into the second factor: perception. Because of the way we are able to convey thoughts through tone, volume, etc. through voice, we can control the number of ways that other people perceive what we say. In online communication, however, all of these limitations disappear. On the internet, we usually have two or more ways of speaking: a formal way and a social, informal way. This, in a way, allows us to practice our formality in speech without actually speaking. However, the number of ways a message can be perceived increase massively, which often causes problems. Through merely reading something someone says, we often cannot detect the difference between sarcasm, seriousness, jokes, etc. Both ways of communication have their limitations and freedoms.

[rachelp]

The language that we are expected to use in school and the casual language we use online to chat with friends are two very different styles. In school, we use proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and mechanics. Online, it really doesn't matter; in fact it is sometimes thought to be better to not capitalize words or use good vocabulary because it seems too formal. When we chat with our friends or post something on Facebook, we often abbreviate words, such as thanks, which becomes 'thnx', or see you, which becomes 'cya'.
Also, you can not really tell the emotion or tone the person is using in an email. A statement can be taken as a fun joke or as an offensive comment. In school, our writing is formal enough that it is easy to tell what the meaning and tone is. If we made the tone unclear in our writing, it would not be enjoyable to read because it would be too confusing, and the reader would spend too much time trying to decipher whether a statement is funny or serious. Overall, online communication and in-school language are two very different types of speech.

[tobih]

The language we are taught to use and the language we use online can be similar or different, depending on personal preferences for communication online. Language used in school is usually pretty standard, the same rules of grammar apply to everyone, however, when it comes to writing online, style of communication varies all over. This has benefits, such as the ability to be even more of an individual and it widens methods of expression, which could earn understanding and respect, however it also has some negative aspects such as the fact that their is always the chance that what you write could be misinterpreted and result in offending someone or losing credibility, of which the risk goes up for when less clear language that strays away from the language we are taught in school is used.

[Ian G]

For the most part, when I am online I type in complete words/sentences. I do this is school also, however, when in school I use proper grammar and punctuation. It is also a different environment, in school I am focused on whatever I am working on. But when I am on the computer I am just joking with friends and instead of saying "How are you?" I would say "Waz Poppin'". This is the difference between chatting with friends online at home, and talking in school.

[steveh]

The language we are taught in school is language that will help us get a job, sound educated, and win the second civil war. It is how the English language is supposed to be. Grammatically correct, proper spelling, and working tenses and spellings. However the speed of information sharing on the internet makes internet communication a different story. The introduction of Photoshop and memes on the internet have taken internet slang to an elite level where there are so many seemingly random sayings and acronyms that only a few people can understand it. It is language based for rapid communication and humor. I think that some of the ways that the internet has taught us to communicate is far superior to the normal English language. But you would never be able to write a screenplay or novel in internet speak. So both ways of speaking have their differences, pros, and cons.

[dylans]

The launguage used online grealty differs from what we are taught in english class. The goal of most posts or texts on the internet is to get them done as fast as possible, with as few and short words as possible. So words as short as OK are made to just 'k', brb, lol, rofl etc. So it differs in the way that it is un-common for proper grammar and launguage to be used online.

[Mr. Wolfman]

Thank you for your posts everyone! I appreciate everyone's excellent responses. It is certainly interesting to consider the different modalities of writing that exist for all of us. I didn't graduate high school that long ago (1999) but when I did, almost nobody had ever had an online communication. The only writing we ever did was for school. There was no concept of social written communication, except for occasionally passing notes in class. Think about how our language has changed so much in just 10 years...then consider how the language has changed in the 400 years since Shakespeare was writing!

Feel free to continue posting here at any time that you have a thought about this subject. The thread is always open.

[tuckerm]

think there is a huge difference between the way I talk on line, and the way I talk and write in class. while online I try to use proper grammar and spelling in most of my posts and chats though. and when i am talking in class i use proper grammar and correct speech. i believe that the big difference is when you are talking you can say things quick while still using proper grammar, but online you must type to the other person which is time consuming. If I need to say something fast i will use things such as "brb" or "gtg" but if I have the time I will use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.

[julianas]

The language we are taught in class is different from online communication because online we are lazy in this new age of technology. Nobody can even say "thank you" or "whats up" it has to be shorter so we don't waste energy like when we say "thx" or "sup". Also, we feel the need to show our emotions with little yellow heads showing the things were doing. In all actuality, nobody would stick out their tongue while talking to somebody, it would just look weird.

[lizag]

The differences between online language and language that we are taught to use in school is that online language has become sort of a slang and abbreviation type of language. Actual English is supposed to be elegant and well put together, but now online conversations make it easier for kids to spell things out. For example instead of saying "you" kid would just say "u". Things like this make kids mix up the two words when they are writing an essay or just writing.