English, baby!

Internet Punctuation (ebaby, facebook, myspace)

Date: Nov 11 2007

Author: jman07

Lesson

Often times when United States kids log on to the internet and chat with our friends, we use informal sentence structure in a "slang form" just like we use "slang words." For example, puncuations marks such as "..." can be used to bypass commas or to explain that one may be thinking about what they are going to say. Instead of thinking about the sentence and writing it in a completed form United States teens may just use a "..." to express a pause. Further more, formal punctuation is usually done away with all togethor. I know for a face that my friends and I do not follow the stardards of proper english when we talk on the internet. We almost never capatialize the beginning letters of a sentence. For example:

hey man, what's up?

The "hey" is not campitalized as "Hey" even though it should be. Depending on the person you talk to, he or she may be more formal or informal with their punctuation. Ultimately, "punctuation slag" is just as prominent as word slang and an outsider has to learn that United States teens do no play by the rules of the English language to any means. Don't freak out if wierd punctuation is thrown out during online discussions! Relax. Take your time and look past the punctuation to the overall meaning of the sentence expressed. See past the errors and flaws and put yourself in the shoes of a native English speaker and embrace rule-breaking when it applies :)

Other examples of punctuation-slang may include:

Hey!. What's up?. (A period is followed by each punctuation mark for artistic expression and originality with grammer.)

Hey!! How are you!? (Double punctuation is added for emphasis. A !? is used to express confusion or concern in most cases.)

How's life been ... (The ... usually refers to expecting an answer from the person the message is being sent to.) Or:

Yeah... I'm just hanging out... (The ... can be discerned as the person describing themself in a relaxed or bored state. Or, they may just have a boring personality!)

I hope this helps anyone who has been thrown off by English-speakers online. I know it's frustrating to get tested on grammer in schools and then have it not even apply to the English conversations your having, because English-speakers don't follow by the book when they're teenage and talking online (the majority of online discussion) but I urge you to take it in with a grain of salt. School prepares you for many of the ways that this world is SUPPOSE to work but YOU need to experience it for yourself in order to develop a greater, real, and correct understanding of how things ACTUALLY work within the English culture.

Thanks for reading!.

-- joey.