Micheal Mariott states in an Article in the New York Times, "Of the 107 million people using the Internet worldwide, it is estimated that 40 to 50 million of them are using chat in.

             some form" (40). Today millions of people use the internet chat services, but few people realize the structure of the language and how it is similar to the patterns of other forms of communication. First, I will discuss how and why the sentence structure of online communication is changed radically from that of normal speech and writing. Secondly, I will illustrate how emotions are expressed while we are engaged in online communication, with all of the barriers that face us. Next, I will explain the differences of how men and women talk over the internet. Lastly, I will discuss gender roles and how they are seen in chat rooms.

             The first and most notable difference in online communication and face to face communication is the vast difference in sentence structure. While people talk face to face they generally use complete sentences and correct punctuation, heard in the pauses and tone variations of speech. Communication in chat rooms is greatly different. The sentences are rarely complete, very few people use correct, if any, punctuation. Here is an example of poor grammar and punctuation from on of the thousands of chat rooms on IRC, Internet Relay Chat, "Ms_grace:[her nick] looking forward for that PAN AM game". The question mark is the most frequently used because it can be difficult to distinguish between a question and a statement without the help of syllable emphasis. These changes in communication styles have several reasons and purposes. The first reason is that using conventional sentence structure would require a too much time to type and correct if need be, to maintain a steady conversation. Very few people have high enough typing skills to keep a conversation flowing in a chat room while using correct grammar and punctuation.