Yet Another Study Says Text Messaging Boosts Writing Skills

from the ah,-this-again? dept

Mon, Oct 31st 2005 6:38pm — Mike Masnick

For a while, you couldn't go a month without seeing yet another story in some newspaper with certain teachers complaining that students were letting "txting" speak appear in their writing -- leaving the teachers worried about the English skills of today's youth. However, as those stories became more popular, people began to notice they were almost all anecdotal. In fact, some people began to point out that all of this writing by kids could actually help them have a better command of the language than in times past, when many kids did almost no writing at all. Finally, in 2003, someone did some research and found that, indeed, kids were actually much more comfortable writing than in the past. While they might experiment with using txting speak or alternative forms of language, they generally learned pretty quickly what was appropriate at what time. Obviously, not everyone gets it right all the time, but the stories of the complete destruction of kids' language abilities has been overstated. It appears that now there's even more research to support this. The latest research does show that kids are better writers than in the past ("using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling") but are still more likely to let the occasional txting shorthand slip into their writing.

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20 Comments

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Tony R., 31 Oct 2005 @ 7:44pm

No Subject Given
The studies make some sense, and I can testify from a schoolchild's standpoint that it's easy to see it as well.

Plus, how can I view the replies to these articles (I'm new to techdirt)? They usually don't show until after I make one myself.
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Tony R., 31 Oct 2005 @ 7:46pm

Re: No Subject Given
Aw! I was the first one to comment...that explains it!
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Stefan Mai, 31 Oct 2005 @ 7:47pm

Re: No Subject Given
Think you may just be quicker than everyone else haha.
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Luke, 31 Oct 2005 @ 8:24pm

Hmm
I dunno what to think. I don't "txt" so-to-speak, but I do use IM clients all the time. However I haven't noticed a decrease in my writing skills. The only thing I do notice is that I take forever to write and sometimes I know how to type out a word because it just embedded into my mind and not think about it, but I suck at spelling it out when I have think about it. Other then that, I haven't noticed much. Just my experiance though.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Oct 2005 @ 8:47pm

No Subject Given
It's far from beneficial.
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Melissa, 31 Oct 2005 @ 8:55pm

No Subject Given
Text messaging doesn't do anything good or bad for a student's writing capabilities. I text message like no other, and I'm probably doing better in AP English and AP History than any of the other people who commented to this article did.
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Anna, 31 Oct 2005 @ 9:10pm

AP Exams
Of course, how you do on AP History and AP English matters much to the people here who are commenting, who may be well in their careers, with successful lives, defined by more than some exam crammed for by a teenager.

But if you want to define success by a couple of classes you take in high school, go right ahead. Just remember you have a long life ahead of you and you wouldn't want to peak too early.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2005 @ 12:29am

Re: AP Exams
Agreed! Couldn't have said it better myself!
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MadJo (profile), 1 Nov 2005 @ 12:52am

Text Messaging Boosts Writing Skills
WTF? how U mean? CU. ZOMG pwned!!!!1111one one

it may be benificial for the writing skills, though I still doubt it, but language skills (or skillz) will most likely decrease. The above is merely an example, not really my style of communicating.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2005 @ 1:11am

Re: No Subject Given
Your English teacher might point out you comment ON an article, not TO it.
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Pete Austin, 1 Nov 2005 @ 1:27am

Re: AP Exams
If the high point of your life is a couple of classes you take in high school, kudos.

But please don't run for president. One is more than enough.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2005 @ 7:39am

No Subject Given
i agree wit dis it haz helped me to becum a better righter
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2005 @ 10:03am

Re: Text Messaging Boosts Writing Skills
Not to become confused, but "Elite Speak" and "Txting" are two different forms of digital writing formats.
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thatguy, 1 Nov 2005 @ 10:59am

Re: Text Messaging Boosts Writing Skills
I believe you meant "L33T SP3@K"

HAHAHAHAAH OMFG SO PWNEDZOREDSZZZD!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2006 @ 11:44am

707 NuBS y0^r @11 NuBS
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Nat Wolff, 26 Sep 2007 @ 1:30pm

PPL!
PLZ lstn 2 this msg!
IMO, BCz of LOL i kno how 2 do things WD!
BTW... AML,
Nat Wolff!
I LUV MY FANS!!!!
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jade magallanes, 27 Oct 2009 @ 8:24pm

hi
it's so hard to make a reseach paper about texting
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2010 @ 6:15pm

text should be put in a right place so that students must be perform good or they will focus on thier study.. specially nowadays, students are fun of texting instead of studying..
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newest jordan shoes, 9 Nov 2010 @ 12:33am

newest jordan shoes
Hello friend, I am very much happy to see your blog. But the problem is I can't understand the language. Thanks for posting. All the best.
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daylelong, 15 Mar 2019 @ 3:42am

Of course, this improves your skills, but here are some more practical rules: you need more practice. Try to write every day at least ten sentences on completely different topics. Read more. The more authors you read, the more styles you will learn. Stop worrying about being a good writer; just write. And if you are busy or do not want to spend your free time on this, then trust trusted platforms, such as https://essayreviewexpert.com/review/academichelp/ hat will do all the work for you. They make a lot of reviews on such platforms like academichelp and others.
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