Netiquette: Meanings, Definitions, and Interpretations

Netiquette has several different meanings, definitions, and interpretations between people. It can either have the literal definition or it can be someone’s concept of what they think it means, to me whether the person uses their definition or the literal one is what makes them have the “Netiquette” factor on their side. As an example to my previous statements everyone has a different spectrum of what they believe is netiquette or not, and what they use as netiquette. To me you never want to lead off an essay with “First off”, it’s too casual and sounds horrible. You want to draw the reader in and get them involved, its stuff you learn in reading and writing 101. The most important netiquette rules are things such as, use spell check and grammar check, don’t talk or type in “slang”, don’t type in all “CAPS”, being fluent in your words knowing the meaning of what you type, and of course common sense. If you are trying to do a formal paper of some sort please use common sense when it comes to everything from punctuation to spelling and not using shortcuts, such as typing in “text” or SMS code word. Examples “LOL”, “WRUD”, etc. As far as least important netiquette rules, I don’t think you can have a least important one.
All in all if you want to have an impact on your audience and draw those in you can use netiquette to accomplish this. As far as “golden rules” go I believe all the netiquette rules I have mentioned above are good golden rules. People should definitely use netiquette rules when preparing papers for college or for a job where you need to have an impact on your readers. Netiquette is a good skill to have and is valuable anywhere and with anything you do.