Contents

• Introduction
• What are manners?
• Online manners
• Informal emails
• Eighteenth-century manners
• Conclusion
• Figures:
  1. Business email
  2. Friendly email
  3. Angry email

As we can see, there are discrepancies between the manners used in current, online communications and in more traditional forms of communication. In traditional forms of writing, the rules are explicit, in the form of the grammar that we learn in school. In the online world, the rules aren't as explicit; rather, a common set of practices have developed out of the Internet's regular use. The rules are therefore slightly less strict in the case of the online world. However, they are just as commonly followed, and just as well-defined.

In looking at the causes of those differences, several explanations arise. First, they could be caused by laziness. A necessary piece of equipment in any use of the Internet is a computer, and in general, people have less experience with computers than with writing or speaking. Typing speed is, for most people, a definite limiting factor in their communication speed. This, along with the intended audience of an email, can lead to what can be termed the "rough draft syndrome". If an email is informal, and intended for a friend, the user might very well question the need to go back through a message to ensure proper spelling and grammer. Similarly, if the user in a chat session, where speedy replies are both polite and expected, the same shortcuts would be taken. On the other hand, in a more formal message to a business colleague, it would be more important to go back and check the email closely.

Whatever the reason, it is obvious that in much of today's online world, a different set of rules are followed than in traditional forms of communication. As the use of the Internet becomes more and more commonplace, it will be interesting to see if the mannerisms used in the online world continue to diverge from those used in the physical world, and whether those mannerisms became as structured and formalized as traditional grammar.

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