Finding an identity 73
of specific guidelines. There are parent-like instructions: ‘Don’t
techno bully’ (by being rude if someone is technically inept); ‘Say
something nice’ (by sending thank-you notes); ‘Mind your man-
ners’ (by keeping a check on what you write). There are teacher-
like directions (on how to address someone; on thinking about
a message’s content before sending it; on not mass mailing).
And there is common-sensical advice: ‘Always check your mes-
sages’; ‘Never e-dump lovers.’ The article displays the charac-
teristics of the genre. It is experience-driven, showing aware-
ness of a range of problems arising in daily Internet use: ‘Never
write messages in capital letters – it’s the e-mail equivalent of shout-
ing.’ At the same time there is an element of prescriptivism: ‘When
writing to someone called Bob, don’t use the fuddy-duddy “Dear
Bob”, but simply “Bob”.’ And there is a strong element of personal
taste: ‘Some etiquette experts feel that invitations, acceptances and
messages of thanks should always be sent via old-fashioned post,
rather than e-mail, but I disagree.’
The ideal guide to Netspeak would be one grounded in system-
atic empirical observation, providing a representative corpus of
material which would reflect the frequency with which Internet
situations use and vary particular structures. But it takes a long
time to carry out such descriptive linguistic surveys.^14 No e-corpus
of this kind yet exists, and so it is inevitable that guides, whether in
article or book form, will contain a great deal that is subjective, ex-
pressingpersonalorinstitutionaltaste.Thereisnothingwrongwith
impressionistic accounts, of course, in the early stages of getting to
grips with a subject; indeed, they have their value in suggesting
hypotheses about the nature of its language, which can guide re-
search. The problem comes when impressionistic statements are
cast as prescriptions, explicitly or implicitly. There is then a real
risk that a biased account of Internet language will emerge, reflect-
ing only the interests and background of the individual author,
publication, or organization which produced it. If such accounts
Independent on Sunday, no date, but early 2000, Part 1). It all depends on what is meant
14 by ‘techy’, of course, but the spirit of this statement does not match the linguistic reality.
For example, Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, and Finegan (1999).