Since texting is becoming so popular among the younger generation many individuals are questioning the affects texting may have on a student’s writing capabilities. They have become alarmed of the new language and are concerned with the literacy development of children. Texting has been misconstrued to the adult population. It is viewed as an ignorant way to write and criticized for its lack of personal emotion. However; through texting you can write pages of script in minutes by shortening words and excluding punctuation. Texting and SMS messaging over social networking sites are convenient, effortless, and effective. It is much easier to text than it is to write a letter or type an email. When talking to a friend out loud it is not uncommon …show more content…
Informal writing is texting, and formal writing is the correct way to write. Writing informally would be, for example, writing letters to friends or peers. Writing formally would be, for example, writing letters to business associates or management staff. In Ali Dansieh’s article, “SMS Texting and Its Potential Impacts on Students’ Written Communication Skills”, he claims we have already been using abbreviations such as etc. for etcetera and e.g. for example in formal papers (Dansieh 22). If we can change the language and use abbreviations like those on formal papers then what is all the fuss about now? Writing is like speaking. You would not speak the same way with a friend as you would your boss. However, most students know this when they text. In Amanda O’Conner’s article Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing, she believes “the most important thing that teachers can do is to emphasize to students the concept of audience” (28). This is extremely important in the classroom, because younger students who are still learning the correct way of writing may not know the difference of formal and informal …show more content…
When witnessing this mistake from older students, mainly college students, it can be a result from laziness or general lack of writing ability. Clare Wood and Sam Waldron discuss their research findings in the Nuffield Foundation article, “New Study Challenges Myth That Texting Affects Children’s Grammar and Spelling”. They say, “The only participants that showed evidence of negative relationships between grammatical violations made when texting and levels of grammatical understanding were young adults. The tendency to omit punctuation and capitalization in text messages was linked to lower performance on the standardized test of grammatical understanding and a specially constructed measure of sensitivity to grammar in written words taken 12 months later. However, the researchers concluded that these links were weak and could be explained by individual differences in the participants’ general ability levels” (Clare Wood, Sam Waldron 8). Clearly, there is no evidence yet to say whether or not grammatical errors and spelling errors are a direct result from frequent
Michaela Cullington, a student, wrote a paper “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in 2010 for an English class. The paper is an examination of texting and the belief that it negative effective student’s writing. Cullington goes into detail about textspeak- “language created by these abbreviations”- and their use in formal writings. She organizes the paper in a way that is confusing to understand at first (pg. 1). At the end of the paper, she discusses her finding in her own research which comes to show that texting does not affect writing. But this is contradicting to the information she received from the teachers. The students and the teachers were seeing differences in the use of textspeak in formal writing. Cullington has good support for her
To ensure that formal written language is preserved, a clear distinction must be made between formal writing and texting. Students -as well as adults- must also be given sufficient practice in both areas if they are to clearly communicate their thoughts to others through either means. As quoted from Nicole Wood and Becky Wang in their presentation “Is Texting Killing the English Language”, “the most common misuses by students are ... using only the letter ‘u’ … [and] using the letter ‘r’...” These errors in formal essays are often -and in most cases- caused by confusion of the distinction between texting and formal writing, leading to an overlap between the two. The value of formal written language is its ability to clearly and distinctly communicate one’s ideas to another -and because of its overall consistency regardless of time- even those in the future. Texting, in some cases however, loses this ability to clearly communicate thoughts and ideas, and exclusively texting at home could lead to a decline in one’s ability to clearly communicate with others through writing.
Although one would argue that technology has advanced enormously and changed how people interact, Cullington notes that texting has little to no effect on formal writing. The students that Cullington sought opinion from were not aware that text abbreviations were appropriate for formal writing. She further adds that textspeak will remain harmless as long as language is applied in the correct place rather than in formal
As explained in The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, “there is a core set of survival skills for today’s workplace, as well as for lifelong learning and active citizenship” (14). One of the seven skills Wagner listed can be tied directly to social media and how it hinders the development of strong communication skills. Instead of having a face to face conversation, teens are sending messages as a means of communication without the actual verbal part. Texting has made communication easier for young Americans by making unpleasant phone conversations a thing of the past and making a quick “Hello” much easier. This trend slowly builds a habit of poor communication skills. As previously mentioned, 75% of teenagers text regularly, and one in three sends more than 100 texts per day. We can see that texting is the preferred method of communication among young people. To make messages quick and maintain a steady flow of conversation, acronyms and dropping nonessential letters are used to shorten messages. Instead of typing out “laugh out loud” they’ll use acronyms like “LOL” to signify they find it amusing.. They’ll also use homophones like “gr8” for “great” and drop letters from words like “would” to make “wud”. It is obvious to see why texting and messaging through social networks negatively
Text messaging is a technology that contributes to the great decline of the English language. The English language is often butchered through the use of text messaging. In Orwell’s essay, he states “An effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form” (446). Main stream society is too lazy to correct any grammar and punctuation in a text message, leading to the assumption that it is not important, after all it is only a text message. Thus, this shows the English language is in decline, when society is to lazy to take a few extra second to correct spelling and punctuation errors . One would not be able to write the same way in an academic essay as they would in a text message. If one would do so, that student would receive an F. No English teacher, or for that matter any teacher, would be thrilled nor impressed reading an essay filled with these common texting erors.
We have also begun something that Clive Thompson and Andrea Lunsford both agree upon; that the “dumbest generation” is in the “midst of a literacy revolution.” Teenagers will communicate with one another, that’s obvious. They talk, Skype, and most commonly, text. Most of the time teenagers will be texting nonstop: to their parents, friends, or whomever they desire. But texting is bad, isn’t it? According to Andrea Lunsford, texting is the root cause of this revolution. For children and young adults, all communication is done through writing. Whether it be emails, text messages, chat rooms, or more formal projects such as essays, assignments, or journals, all is mostly completed by writing. With all of these uses of writing, the “dumbest generation” writes exceedingly more than their parents generation, whom would only write in school or in jobs that required it. According to Lunsford, the technical level of writing has improved as well, “The students were remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos - assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across” (Lunsford qtd Thompson). The children of the “dumbest generation” so far have been able to do the impossible. We have redefined the social barriers that prevented us from being a socially equal and innovative society, we have allowed the classroom setting to be more self taught
Texting and technology are quickly taking over our lives, we are free to send messages and view messages at our own leisure. Nonetheless, students are educated and know that text speak is not fitting for professional academic writing. Disregarding the evidence for and against texting, Cullington’s own results maintains the idea that texting has no effect on the students’ writings. I would say that her response is persuasive because she was able to survey and conduct an interview study on past teachers and students, as well as get their views on this topic. Moreover, she does an exceptional job performing a throughout study asking relative question as well as being able to personally read and analyze English writing for
Is it right for adolescent American students to text so profoundly? In my opinion, it is a very pessimistic thing and is having a negative effect on the students writing abilities and grammar. As it says in both passages ,“Text-Speak Is Harming Teens’ writing Skills,” and ,“Text-Speak Can Help Students,” recent studies have shown that an average teen sends about sixty texts per day. The use of informal language and slang takes place which can cause illness in academic work.
“Our generation doesn't ring the doorbell. They text or call to say they're outside,” this line is from one of the well-known social networks, Tweeter, which shows how the way of communication has change in this modern life. According to 2013 statistics by Business Insider, in United States alone, smartphone owners aged 18 to 24 send 2,022 texts per month on average — 67 texts on a daily basis — and receive another 1,831 texts (Cocotas). Nowadays, technology such as text messaging has practically replaced traditional face to face communication among the society primarily in young generations because texting allows messages to be sent fast and effortless. In order to quickly type what they are trying to say in text messaging, people are frequently using textspeak; the language created by using abbreviation rather than complete words. Based on this phenomenon, David Crystal, an honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales has published an article entitled ‘2b or not 2b?’ in the Guardian on July 5, 2008 comes out with the research and studies that state texting can actually improve the literacy of children and create creativity of writing. However, by observing more critically, texting do decrease a person’s ability to switch between textspeak and the normal rules of grammar and adversely affect formal writing and conversational skills.
In the article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, the author Michaela Cullington conveys her speculation that texting does not correlate to how students write formal essays. At the beginning of the article Cullington introduces the term texting and the convenience texting brings. Later expressing her concern that the texting language “Textspeak” is actually affecting students writing; then contradicts these views by using primary and secondary sources (news articles, books, her own surveys and research). In addition, she uses an anecdote to tell of her own experience with texting and writing. Together with other evidences and research put together, she uncovers the debate between textspeak and formal writing. On the basis of her research, she concludes that the state of texting does not interfere with writing or writing abilities.
It's taking over our lives. We can do it almost anywhere. What is it? It's texting! Texting is a reliable, easy and convenient form of communication that is most commonly used by, but not limited to millenials and those in the workforce. Many people use it as a way to express themselves as well. In Michaela Cullington’s article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she targets two different attitudes in relation to texting. Cullington explains that there is often an assumption that students who use abbreviations when they text, will bring those same abbreviations over to their formal writing pieces. Cullington then adds that the other attitude in relation to writing skills and texting insists that texting is harming student’s writing capabilities. Because of her research as well as experiments done by other colleagues of hers, it shows that
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
The use inventive spelling, abbreviations. As high school students start to use short texting, some of their grades dropped due to the spelling errors they make. So many teens get used to wing abbreviating that they just begin to write that that way. Some teenagers writing skills have turned into sentence fragments, because of the limited space they put into text sentence. In my research how does texting affect teen literacy the percentage was 64 percent of students who say they incorporated text language in their writing, 25 percent said they did so to convey have used text shortcuts a lot of students, vocabulary and grammar is also affecting their literacy. The outlook of the teachers is that. Text plus recently released results of its own survey of 1,214 teens that use their services. 43 percent of which have texted in class, they seem to pay more attention to their phone than what the teacher is teaching. They seem to have the phones that will spell the word for them so they have to worry about spelling. In the age of text message, where words are reduce to no stand abbreviating, symbols, But in my research I pointed out that technology has put new emphasis on reading and
The question of young people and cell phone use and texting causing young people to be less able to concentrate and focus has always been a difficult one to answer. Technology gives teenagers so much but includes many drawbacks. Cell phone use and texting has it’s advantages such as teachers embracing tech,uses for educational purposes, and easy to use;however,some drawbacks are as socializing,time away from homework,and bad communication skills.
“Texting in Class a Growing Problem.” TheKanson.com. 7 December 2010. Singel, Ryan. The.