Effects Of Texting On Students Writing Skills

Does texting have an effect on students writing skills?

In this era, communicating via text is a huge part of a student’s life. As I walk around on campus, I observe everyone holding a cell phone if not texting/communicating on it. For the most part, its irritating to see someone engulfed so much into his/her phone to the point of accidentally bumping into someone else, crossing the street without looking, and even students while in class, have the audacity to utilize his/her phone texting whomever in the presence of the educator. Ugh! What is our society coming to? Students consistently not giving his/her undivided attention to a specific person, event, or situation is not condusive to any type of situation especially in the classroom.

On the other hand, some educators say otherwise, they say that texting has an adverse effect on students’ writing and comprehension of formal writing. Students struggle with formal writing because they implement slang and informal styles into their development of sentences when writing an essay, research paper or a literary analysis. A student’s formal writing skill set suffers, as his/her art of texting and using informal writing become stronger in using texting cyber slang methods. The argument of whether or not texting has a positive or negative effect on students reading and writing is a strong concern for educators who are finding ways to maintain teaching students the proper and formal way to write. Ultimately, students’ texting definitely has a negative effect on students’ overall writing skills. Students are currently at a disadvantage when texting throughout the day, implementing the text language within formal writing when tested in the classroom. Research also show that students’ comprehension, reading, and communication skills are at an all-time low as a result of not being able to properly write. Therefore, it may be time to put into place