The Internet and the English Language Terrence Carter Presentation by Megan Propts

Overview The English Renaissance A Professional Evolution or Devolution? In Praise of Words The “Invisible Person” Syndrome Training and Tools Conclusion

English Renaissance With more and more people online, the expectation is that writing skills would improve This is not the case Writing skills are actually getting worse

A “Professional” terry: 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 -cp

Evolution or Devolution? Internet started out as very “spartan” ARPANET was developed by the Department of Defense and grew to connect millions of people worldwide As life becomes more fast-paced, people favor shorter words over longer ones and try to get information more quickly

In Praise of Words Internet communication uses written words, but the tone is more like that of verbal interaction Even total strangers talk like close friends Users transcribe the spoken word onto the Internet, where it is translated into proper English Difficult to comprehend without proper punctuation and syntax Ex: LOL, TTYL

The “Invisible Person” Syndrome “Anonymity breeds indolence” People see the poorer writing on the Internet as an excuse to write worse Believe that no one knows who they are, so no one will care Ironically, most users can be traced back to their Internet Service Providers

Training and Tools Lack of training and knowledge about Internet tools is another problem Spend less time on mastered areas (English language) in favor of exploration of the unknown (the Internet) Spellcheck leads to laziness, as people do not actually read what their errors are or of spellcheck identifies them correctly

Conclusion The fast-paced nature of the century makes people desire information quicker Simulated verbal interaction cuts down on proper punctuation and spelling Anonymity causes people to not care about their grammar The vastness of the Internet means less time thinking about the English language Spellcheck makes users lazy about their writing Is this evolution or merely a phase?

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