Netspeak for academics

[robinturner]

Although the WWW was the creation of academics and the number of academics using the web has increased exponentially (largely due to universities providing easy-to-fill-in homepage generation forms for the computer-illiterate), they are still largely absent from chat-rooms and forums. I suspect this is partly because they are intimidated by all the Netspeak: IMO, IANAL, BTW, BFN, LOL etc. Even I had to ask what HTH meant today (it's "Hope this helps", in case anyone else was baffled). There's also the fact that Netspeak is not always designed with the niceties of academic debate in mind. I mean you wouldn't expect something like this:

[sexylitprof] BTW, Keats r0x0rZ ...
[f1n34rt5] ROTFLMAO!!!!!

I therefore modestly propose a dialect of Netspeak more in keeping with the requirements of academia. After all, it was scholars who first introduced us to abbreviations, with such opaque gems as "e.g." and "QED". Here are some suggestions.

LMPITW - let me put it this way
STS - so to speak
DYT - define your terms
TANS - that's a non sequitur
IWAOR - if we apply Occam's razor
BTQ - begging the question
AHA - ad hominem argument
LAR - lacks analytical rigour
SBTD - speculating beyond the data
CAAO - comparing apples and oranges
WDYDYD - where did you do your doctorate?
TJCR - that's just cultural relativism
NPMHP - no postmodernism here, please

Comments

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

LAR reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons ever to appear in the Chicago Reader. Two men are facing off at a party, a smashed wineglass on the floor between them. Very high-domed and bespectacles academic types. One points to the other and says "You lack analytical rigor. And so does your mother!"

To which the other responds with an outstretched middle digit and "Yeah? Deconstruct this, asshole!"

A waggish friend pointed out that taking out a comma would make the latter "Deconstruct this asshole." Which is what the cartoonist was doing, really.

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

"bespectacled"

That's what I meant to type. Gah. Need more cold medicine.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Oh, good grief. So, Professor Lewis, what do you feel were the primary problems faced by urban society during the period 1702 to '56? (http://www.micaelita.com/historytoday/mwe3.shtml)

[solri.livejournal.com]

That's you, that is.

[solri.livejournal.com]

There's a version of it here (http://www.mindspring.com/~mfpatton/Comic.htm).

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

That's the one! I sent it to everyone I knew in graduate school when it first appeared, and they were grateful.