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. Her

The methods used to show emotion through electronic communication and face to face communication are greatly different forms. Emotion is easily seen in our facial expressions, bodily movements, and tone and rate that are usually indicators of the person's true feelings. Of course, we cannot, for the most part, convey feelings this way while we are talking in chat rooms. I say for the most part because we can simply put the statement in caps lock to express that we are yelling at someone, or people often write "hahaha" to show that they are laughing. For the most part feelings are expressed in symbols. A few examples of this are if someone is happy about something they type ":-)" or ":}". I have noticed that the women are much more likely to use the ":-)" symbol than are men. Its purpose is to come across as being cute. One woman I saw used :-) after nearly every message she posted. On the other hand if someone is sad or unhappy about something they will type ":(" or :[. If a person is very sad they will type ":˜(" to show that they are crying. People often abbreviate things to show that they have found something funny. The most popular example of this is "lol" or laugh out loud. Writing "j/k" signifies that the person was making a joke and translates as just kidding.

Gender roles are seen everywhere in life and the internet chat rooms are no exception. Names like buck10 and deathdog convey signs of powerful, strong, dominant animals. The people they represent often converse in the same manner. Men are much more likely to use sleazy, intrusive language. For example, I watched one room for nearly two hours and no one was talking about lewd subjects. One guy came on and said this within the first minute of his presence, "mom4daugh[his nick]: any real horny mom loving women here?" The channel operator promptly

Some common words found in the essay are:
Chat Ms_graceher, Wars Cyberspace, York Times, Lecturing Listening, Gary Goshgarian, online communication, gender roles, sentence structure, Nathan Cobb, Deborah Tannen, gender roles seen, communication face communication, face communication, seen chat, forms communication, roles seen, buck10 deathdog, refer themselves, grammar punctuation,
Approximate Word count = 1242
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)