Written discourses - Learning Objective: to understand how s differ from letters as written discourses in occupational contexts [...] is far more than just a minor technological development for the computer literate. Its impact compares with the arrival of the Victorian railway. More than simply an accelerated horse-and-cart for the masses, trains radically altered space and time, shrinking distances and synchronising clocks across the country for the first time. So has begun to affect the way we communicate in innumerable ways. Peter Stanford, ‘Getting the message’, Sunday Times, 4 July ‘This English, bashed out without capitals, paragraphs and any idea of composition, is [...] irritating, tiring to read, and often simply unreadable.’ (Terry Waite) Frank Kermode: it is hard to ‘imagine anyone writing a serious letter by ’, which ‘fosters promiscuous communication’ How do you respond to these attitudes towards ?

Challenges to the conservative view of s: The more relaxed tenor of s indicate broader social changes towards informalisation. is changing to reflect the broader and more diverse constituency of people who now use it – it is no longer the preserve of computer specialists or academics, whose language would have been more esoteric and exclusive. Moran & Hawisher (1998) suggest that writers personalise their texts more in than in letters. is positioned more as a hybrid mode, a mixed mode texts combining elements of spoken and written modes.

Features expected in s in occupational contexts Which features of letters do you think would still apply to s? In an writers are much more likely to use a demotic (popular) register, contractions (I'm for I am, and so on), and incomplete sentence structures – using the loose syntax of spontaneous spoken English or what David Crystal calls “minor sentence types” (Cambridge Encyclopedia of English Language, Cambridge, 1995, p. 216). Where the (old style) letter has a structure petrified (fixed) by custom (it uses the sender's address, recipient's name and address, date, salutation and so on), has yet to achieve this. Writers of e- mails can be unsure how to open or close a message. Typically they disregard conventions of spelling and punctuation, especially case-sensitivity, which apply to postal mail. Emoticons (“smileys” or “smilies”) - like this: :-)are much more likely to appear in than in letters.

Putting this into practice Closely annotate this series of s from IT technicians and a software support engineer who are trying to identify a technical problem. Identify: – Special lexis and jargon – Lexical items which denote a particular register (demotic or not?) – Deictic expressions – Contractions – Loose syntax – Indirect requests, hedging – Fixed expressions; generic conventions

Research into ‘ isms’ (Helen Petrie, 1999) Any surprises? Why do you think ‘trailing dots’ might be the most common ‘ ism’? Do you think that, in 2016, this research is still valid?

Putting this into practice Open up the last I sent you, and the last you sent to me or another teacher. Discuss with your partner: what do you notice about this occupational context and the way you and I write s?

Some wider reading ideas language/2011/apr/04/language language/2011/apr/04/language language/2015/nov/06/all-the-best-yours-sincerely-the- last-word-on- -signoffs language/2015/nov/06/all-the-best-yours-sincerely-the- last-word-on- -signoffs mind/ /Mind-Healing-Tips-for- -and-texting- etiquette.html mind/ /Mind-Healing-Tips-for- -and-texting- etiquette.html 2/Can-we-turn-off- .html#disqus_thread 2/Can-we-turn-off- .html#disqus_thread

Homework Put in place the finishing touches to your presentations ready for our next lesson.