By Brooks Doherty, Converge
Generally context and company dictate to which code we must shift. One may employ slang when in the company of friends, shift to biz-speak when in the company of professional colleagues, and abandon the grammar rules when trying to cram a message into 140 characters or fewer. But as our interactions grow more virtual in nature, these lines of company and context begin to blur. For example, as I type, I have three Internet tabs open on the monitor next to my Word document: one of Twitter, one of Facebook, and one of the Rasmussen College Online course management system (CMS). I imagine such a page variety is not dissimilar to that found on the laptops of many of our students. As I bounce from this Microsoft Word document, to Twitter, to Facebook, to the online CMS, my company and context do not change. I am still alone in my office, typing on my laptop; however, my audiences, and the codes required to communicate effectively with each, change drastically. Typing “LOL!!” is acceptable on one screen, but not the next. The audience on the receiving end of this screen wants me to write in complete sentences, while another discourages the Queen’s Language in favor of brevity.
http://www.convergemag.com/training/Op-Ed-Web-20-Code-Switching-in-the-Online-Classroom.html
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