Crash Course

Before you start, I'd suggest opening Notepad or a word processor of your choice. You may wish to do the activities.

Lesson #1: Conquering the 'Shift' key

The first step in mastering the 'Shift' key is to turn off CAPS LOCK. Once this is done, look at your keyboard and locate the 'Shift' button. You may realize at this point that there are actually two. Don't worry - they should both work the same way.

Now that you have found your 'Shift' key(s), you are ready to begin practicing. Hold down one of the 'Shift' keys and try pressing a letter. The letter should appear as a capital, almost as if you are still using CAPS LOCK. Now release the 'Shift' key and press another letter. This time it should appear lower-case. Symbols that are in the upper half of a key can also be accessed by pressing that key while holding down 'Shift.'

Practice: Try writing these exercises using the 'Shift' key until you are comfortable with it.

Guess what.
What?
I just learned how to use the 'Shift' key!
Really? Awesome! Where did you learn?
At Rachel's Netiquette Crash Course.

Now that you know how to make capital letters...

Proper Capitalization
The following need capital letters:

The beginning letter of all proper nouns
The first letter of a sentence
When writing "I" referring to your self (this probably falls under the first category, but it's always a good idea to reiterate important ideas)

Lesson #2: The Action Asterisk

Take a look at this little guy:
*
Believe it or not, the asterisk is one of the most powerful tools you have to express yourself on the Internet. Actually, they are usually used in pairs. The text they surround is either emphasized, or denotes an action.

For example:
"I am *the* biggest Hanson fan!"
*laughs uproariously*

With your skills from Lesson #1, you should be able to access the asterisk by pressing the 8 key on your keyboard while simultaneously holding down the 'Shift' button. Got it? Good.

Note: The asterisk pair becomes a part of the word, and therefore comes before any punctuation. So you would say, "Yes, but it's *mine*." and not "Yes, but it's *mine.*"

Another Note: In some chat rooms, specifically xoom chat rooms like mine, you have to be careful. Any text starting with an asterisk is read as Java code. Therefore, if you'd like an asterisk as your first character, **double it up**. In the middle of a line it can remain single if you wish. Also, you can experiment with different symbols. Be creative!

Lesson #3: Abbreviations

The Internet can only move as fast as the people sitting behind their computers. So, in order to communicate even faster, there are a bunch of abbreviations that are commonly used. I tried to get all the usual ones and some others which are interesting.

Laughter

lol: Laughing Out Loud
rofl or rotfl: Rolling On the Floor Laughing
lmao: Laughing My A** Off
lshmbh: Laughing So Hard My Belly Hurts
Or, mix and match: rotflol, roflmao, etc.

General

a/s/l: Age/Sex/Location
bbl: Be Back Later
bbs: Be Back Soon
brb: Be Right Back
btw: By The Way
gtgb: Got To Go, Bye
imho: In My Humble Opinion
irl: In Real Life
jic: Just In Case
jk: Just Kidding
kotc: Kiss On The Cheek
l8er: Later
ne1: Anyone
np: No Problem
oic: Oh, I see
pc/pm: Private Chat / Private Message
'sok: It's OK
tks, tnx: Thanks
ttfn: Ta Ta For Now
ttyl: Talk To Ya Later
ty: Thank You
wb: Welcome Back
wtf: What The F***
yw: You're Welcome

Other Actions

((((username)))): Hugs username
action@username: Does action to username
//image: In geocities, displays image (whichever image name from the list you have chosen)
<----text: Text is about yourself
*page: In xoom, pages the admin or page target in a separate window

Lesson #4: Smileys

Smileys have become very common on the Internet. Here are some of the main ones, with some of their connotations. (Actually, I made a lot of them up.) Remember: To view smileys, think about how they would look sideways.

:)	User is smiling
=)	User is smiling even more
:(	User is frowning
=(	User is really frowning
;)	User is winking
:p	User is sticking tongue out
:b	User is sticking tongue out, on the other side
q:-)	User is wearing a baseball cap
8^)	User wears glasses
:I	User is chewing
:\|	User is not very happy
:[	User is frowning deeply
:#	User has braces
<:)	User is a conehead
(:]	User is bald
:c)	User has a cartoon nose
:{	User has a moustache
:)~	User has a goatee
:E	User has fangs
[:-I)	User is Dracula
{:v	User is Leonardo DiCaprio (ar at least has hair like his)

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