We discuss metric and combinatorial properties of Thompson's group , including normal forms for elements and unique tree pair diagram representatives. We relate these properties to those of Thompson's group when possible, and highlight combinatorial differences between the two groups. We define a set of unique normal forms for elements of arising from minimal factorizations of elements into natural pieces. We show that the number of carets in a reduced representative of an element of estimates the word length, that is undistorted in , and we describe how to recognize torsion elements in .