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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Netiquette.


Netiquette has existed almost since the very first time people started to use Internet to communicate. Back in 1997, I took a course with an excellent teacher from the IPC - Prof. Sol Castro- who opened a new world to me: the World Wide Web (WWW). I never thought this was going to keep me interested till the present time. Among the things I was taught in this course, I remember the emphasis she made to the correct use of 'Netiquette rules.' Nowadays, I think this should be taught in each and every class in which students are asked to communicate. Although we may have different opinions or disagree with our interlocutors, we should always show respect and good manners when we write...

Some of the most common Netiquette rules are:

1. Avoid using all capital letters. This may be taken as if you are shouting.

2. Try to use clear language that does not make the reader think you are offending him/her.

3. When writing an e-mail message, make sure that the subject line contains a good description of what you are sending.

4. Acknowledge before disagreeing. You may have a different opinion, but show respect to the others ideas before you present your position.

5. Use emoticons and abbreviations to shorten messages and make them more friendly. However, do not overuse of these devices for the information may be difficult to understand.

sources:

http://sustainability.open.ac.uk/gary/papers/netique.htm
http://fortulabvirtual.blogspot.com/2008/04/reglas-de-cortesia-y-etiqueta-en.html
http://www.learnthenet.com/learn-about/netiquette/index.php

3 comments:

Miguel Mendoza said...

Rules are needed to give order or avoid chaotic communication as it can easily happen, say, in a chat room having more than 2 people. Simple rules as you wrote can help keep messages in perspective and follow coherently what participants contribute in online environments.

mirquint said...

You are right, Mike. Chat rooms are the best example of chaos in written communication. To be honest, I don't like them much. I often disable this function in each application I download to my computer. However, when necessary, I pre-arrange chats to do some specific activities and those conversations are reallly useful.

Miguel Mendoza said...

Chatting is useful and it is one way of communicating syncronously online. If there are two people chatting, everything is OK. But when there's more than 2, a few rules must be followed to guarantee a successful communication in this kind of electronic resource.