ABSTRACT
Linked to the development of telecommunications and the availability of personal computers for home and office, a new form of discourse has emerged, Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Defined as any type of human-to-human communication mediated by a computer (Murray, 2000, p. 398), the different forms of CMC have been characterized by their immediacy (Warschauer, 1995a), with the most immediate being synchronous communication, such as real-time video conferencing and online chatting using Internet Relay Chat (IRC), chat rooms, MOOs (Multipleuser-domain-Object-Oriented), or LANs (Local Area Networks; see Braine, chap. 6, this volume), where people are reading and writing at the same time. Delayed-time or asynchronous forms are read after they are written and include e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, postings to e-mail lists, and the World Wide Web.
