Informal Electronic Rhetoric

The 21st century is an age marked by innovation in technology. The forms of communication people use daily have also adapted to the internet dependence.  Although critics argue that computers and cell phones have created an isolationist society without interpersonal interaction, people are communicating now more than ever through writing on the web.

Corporations, businesses, and organizations alike are all beginning to take advantage of the quick and easy exchange of information via the internet. The changing technology has opened the door to new and innovative styles of writing that possess distinctive traits, and yet still follow some of the basic rhetorical ideologies.  Electronic devices act as a unique vehicle of expression and possess an individual set of writing characteristics and constraints. Electronic rhetoric has not only grown into a field of study, but has developed into a professional industry of its own. Email, social networking sites, blogs, online journals and news sites are just a few that thrive off online communication. While these sites offer a variety of different writing purposes, some informal and some formal, there are theories developing which attempt to distinguish commonalities in the rhetoric.