Speech etiquette of professional online communities

ABSTRACT Networking within online communities is recognized as a new way of social interaction. The authors study Russian Internet communities that unite members of the same profession – professional social networks. In such communities, speech etiquette is formed under the influence of communicative values that are, in turn, formed under the influence of values that are determined by a particular profession. We search for a correlation between professional social networks’ speech etiquette features and the profession of their members, and raise the questions: What communication goals are pursued by the users of the communities studied? What communicative situations form the professional social networks’ speech etiquette? What are the communicative values of an online group for professionals? What kinds of professionals’ speech activity may influence the formation of speech etiquette in professional social networks? Speech activity of professional social networks was analysed in ‘Dentistry’, ‘Overheard in the police’, and ‘Law dot ru’.