Artefacts

Informal fora

informal-fora

The use of informal English on web forums

On the 26th of March, 2009 Lingforum.com had 1200 registered users and 4,947 articles posted. This is just an example of one of the many web forums on which people are communicating in English. On these forums the interactions not only vary widely in topic but also in the social roles of the participants. Users may approach each other in a more formal or informal way, leading to the research question: How much is informal English used on web forums? The first part of this paper will look into the English language, specifically ‘online English’ and ‘informal English’. It will then go on to discussing Computer Mediated Communication in general and web forums in specific. Finally, a content analysis of different web forums is examined and conclusions are given.

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