Txt Spk In Schools Not A Big Deal
from the yet-again dept
While some of the headlines on the latest Pew Study about how "txt speak" is slipping into school writing assignments suggest the horror of a generation of kids who write LOL and use smileys in written communications, the actual results aren't that bad at all. What the study found was that, yes, occasionally some students let slip non-formal English, though that's hardly surprising. However, it's not particularly damaging, and it becomes a teaching point, helping students learn the difference between formal and informal English. This is nothing new. Every year we see the same basic study results, despite plenty of people flipping out. Despite long term worries about txt speak destroying the language, there's no evidence to support that.In 2003, there was a study that showed that all this writing online was actually making kids more comfortable with writing in general. In 2004, a study showed (like this one) that with a little instruction kids easily understood the difference between texting and writing. In 2005, a study actually found that kids were 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" even if they sometimes let a txtism into their writing. And, in 2006, a study showed that students showed no ill effects from widespread text and IM messaging. In other words, this story is getting plenty of attention, but the details don't support the headline version that kids are unable to understand what's appropriate in their writing.
Also, one other interesting finding came out of this study: despite the fact that kids sometimes seem attached to their computers, two-thirds actually prefer to write assignments by hand. So, perhaps that'll put to rest that other circulating myth that kids aren't able to write by hand any more.
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OMG
c'ya
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Then why is it that so few of these kids show up on the net? Half the messages I see on forums and in the comments of sites like this one, don't use proper capitalization, or puncuation and most of them don't know the difference between "there, "their" and "they're" or "your" and "you're". I can't count the number of times I've seen "ur" in a message.
I know I'm not a perfect writer. I make spelling mistakes, I sometimes omit words and I probably mis-use some punctuation symbols, but at least I try.
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I don't like writing by hand for the same reason I don't like talking: my hand -- like my mouth -- can't keep up with my thoughts. Only my fingers seem to be fast enough.
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Re: Rekrul
I hate to talk to people, and for a long time I was terrified of public speaking. But I'm actually really good at it. Small talk and speeches take completely different mindsets. The same goes for casual, communicative writing and school-assigned writing.
Only punctuation is truly necessary for accurate communication, and even it isn't paramount. There shouldn't be a comma after capitalization in "capitalization, or punctuation", but it doesn't really matter. Using there when you mean their doesn't often obscure the meaning of the sentence.
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Keyboards
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This is a widely used proffessional practice
When one looks at it for what it is, shorthand, and not some evil corruption of language it's no surprise that people who use it have a better understanding of language not worse. And people who encode their thoughts into text more often are going to be better writers in general.
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TxT Spk
Honestly, English students will make mistakes. Sometimes a piece of slang slips by. Because people IM so much that certain words just become habitual to type. Personally...I think that's what spell checker is for.
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Re:
Don't forget "loose" v. "lose".
"Your purse strap is loose, so you might lose it".
And "ad" v. "add"
"I'd like to add this photo to my ad in your paper".
I'm not sure if the country is getting more illiterate or it is the illiterates dominating the internet. I'd bet on the latter.
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Re: Re: Rekrul
Though, on the GPs point, I have to agree. I try my hardest to use appropriate spelling and grammar. I rarely see that even in WORK related emails anymore.
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I'm So Glad We Destroyed Archaic English
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Re:
Not to get all Platonic (Platonist?) on you!
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Re: Re: Rekrul
Only punctuation is truly necessary for accurate communication, and even it isn't paramount.
The word "only" modifies "punctuation", stating that nothing other than punctuation is truly necessary, however many other factors are also necessary. In the context of discussion, we can figure out what was probably intended. There are many examples of sentences whose meaning changes without punctuation, and many more sentences that need no punctuation.
Like this one.
Like this one?
If I guess correctly, the sentence would be phrased:
Punctuation is only truly necessary for accurate communication, and even then, it is not paramount.
In my version, only modifies truly which in turn modifies necessary. There are many people who will argue that accurate communication is always necessary and those that argue that if you got your point across you have communicated accurately.
I fixed some other things. Rules of grammar forbid contractions in written text except in quotations.
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Re: TxT Spk
You want a grammar checker.
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Teaching English
And these are 18 & 19-year-olds, mind you, only a decade younger than me.
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Re: Re: Re: Rekrul
The older generation, who hasn't grown up with the same pervasiveness of technology, they're the ones who are at a disadvantage. I'm not saying all of today's kids are brilliant, I'm just saying that just because someone says "your stupid" doesn't mean they're under the age of, say, 30.
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Re: Re: Re: Rekrul
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Rekrul
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Re: Re:
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Avast!
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Re: Re:
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Re: Teaching English
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Side story for children using txt spk
She once had a "disagreement" with an irate parent who attempted to defend their child's poor marks. The parent's defense was, "Well in the new technology based future this is how everyone will communicate. So they need experience speaking it now." After my wife finished strangling the parent, well she did so in her imagination, she decided to have the woman read something. She wrote the woman a message in txt spk and asked the woman to read it. She could only barely comprehend it, but this only made the woman more mad claiming it was an unfair comparison. My wife had repeated with the woman's child had written on his paper, and afterwards told her so.
You have to give the parent credit because after this she still tried to argue the child a better grade. My wife asked the parent to focus her enthusiasm and passion into checking her child's homework.
Coming from Australia, the fact a parent would try to argue a better grade for their child is utterly unthinkable.
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relax rekrul...
Sound like a bunch of grumpy old men/women!
oops... that was a sentence fragment... oh no!
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Re: Re: Re: Rekrul
My manual of reference, the AP Stylebook (I'm a copy editor), allows contractions. I don't know what formal writing is, but there is no single set 'rules of grammar.' I mean, I may have been taught that rule in high school, but most of the rules we learn in high school are silly. There's nothing wrong with a preposition at the end of a sentence. There's nothing wrong with a split infinitive. And there's nothing wrong with starting a sentence with a conjunction. And there is nothing wrong with contractions. Except for unclear ones like 'it'd,' which can mean it had or it would.
Anyway, what I was thinking of was when I wrote above was the different ways of punctuation this old gem:
When told to punctuate the sentence "Woman without her man is nothing,":
The men wrote: "Woman, without her man, is nothing."
The women wrote: "Woman! Without her, man is nothing."
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This generation
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Re: Re:
The keyboard is the only way I can really communicate effectively, and even then my success rate is only about 90%.
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Touch-Typing
On the other hand, of course, being able to hammer out fifty words a minute or more isn't always necessary or even helpful with word processors; the ability to correct as you go along enables you to do your thinking straight onto the keyboard rather than fill a dozen-odd pages of a notebook with misspellings and crossings-out before typing up the draft version, in which case it's actually beneficial for your brain to be a few sentences ahead of your fingers, as it's always better to try and get it right the first time rather than do sloppy work in a rush and patch it up afterwards. I'm not saying there's necessarily anything wrong with getting it all down and saving any corrections until afterwards, of course, merely that it's about personal taste rather than either method having any objective merit over another.
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Not so much an issue of knowing the difference
My little sister, several cousins, kids from family friends, and even students in my university use txt in school papers quite regularly. When asked what they should have written, they generally know the correct word/spelling, but say that they didn't even notice they had made the errors. It slips in so unconsciously that they are oblivious to the error, even though they know why it actually is an error.
I don't ask that everyone be a perfect writer, because I know I'm certainly not. I just hope that it doesn't become acceptable to let such errors occur consistently, as could easily become the case.
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RE: TXT SPK
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Re: RE: TXT SPK
This is false, at least among those who use txt spk regularly. There are rules and commonly-used abbreviations that The Initiated are familiar with. 133t was the same way; it's not complete anarchy, you just don't understand the rules.
Granted, I don't understand the rules either, but my little sister doesn't even blink when she gets a txt or email riddled with the stuff. I stick to whole words, myself.
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txt spk should never be used in schools. School is a training ground for the future, and for 99% of the people out there, their future will not include using txt spk in their professional lives.
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Re:
Nope
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Hmm...
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if it wrks 4 u
Counselling through txt, email and interent message board postings provide challenges but also provide a service using media that people utilize as preferred choice.
In a screen limit of 160 characters and a costing system for each sent screen, the medium shapes the message.
Scary for some who seem to think that counselling can't be achieved when it's contracted.
But it also provides 'voice' for people who would find it too hard to say what it is that's going on for them.
Or when it's dangerous to talk and txting provides a safer medium.
Languages are alive, they change. Whether I use 'utilize' with a 'z' or an 's' or write counselling or counseling shows this.
I used to worry that my daughter wasn't reading enough books and was on her computer too much, and then i discovered she was writing chapters on fanfiction instead.
Does it matter? The point of being literate is to communicate, not to be a scholar and not to be class judged.
If ur interested in following my PhD on txt counselling, visit me at amusingspace.blogspot.com
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I probably use many more commas than I should. When I write, I tend to write as if the words are being spoken. In fact, if something doesn't seem right on the screen, I will sometimes recite it out loud to see if it sounds correct. This leads me to place commas at the points were I would normally pause in real life.
Back when I still had posting access on the IMDb, I often had to explain that the forums were threaded not "flat" like the comments here. When a message is replied to, the author of that message gets an email alert. Even after explaining this, some users refused to take the extra five seconds to click on the proper message because "That's the way I'm used to doing it and it's easier for me."
I never actually stuttered, but I was often nervous when talking to someone I didn't know very well and this lead to situations where I would get halfway through a sentence and then not have any idea how to finish it. I've also noticed that I say "you know" far too often in casual conversations and I've been making an effort to stop. I'm still nervous about talking to new people in real life though.
I never learned touch typing. I started with two fingers and now I use about six, three on each hand.
I use some shorthand when writing to friends or people I think will understand it, although not "txt spk". I used to use BTW (By The Way) quite often.
Personally, I got an image of a white, middle class teenager dressed in ridiculously baggy clothes with a hat on sideways, listening to rap music and practicing saying "What up dog!" in front of a mirror until his father yells "Turn that sh** down!" :)
So that's where all that Harry Potter porn is coming from. ;)
Here's a video the users here should appreciate;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIUcRJX9-o
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What is the Allure of Text Messaging?
Most of these cell phones do not have qwerty keyboards, so they must hit some of the number buttons up to 3 times just to input just one letter.
Then most of these "vital" communications are air-head messages, about air-head subjects.
My friends teenage daughter ran up a $700 dollar phone bill in just one month.
Perhaps they have never heard of Morse Code, if they had, they would be using that instead.
Can your children communicate intelligently in writing? Or can they only write in ‘txt msg shthnd’? (Text message shorthand!) Can they even speak intelligently? What is their “CWPM” rate? (Curse Words Per Minute) let alone their, “Meaningless-Filler & Gratuitous-Phrases”, these are repetitive words or phrases, such as ‘like’, ‘um’ or ‘you-know’ in every sentence. It is the ability to get points across well and succinctly that will enable your kids to make a good living, but they also must be lucky enough to go to the right schools, staffed by the right teachers, they must pointed in a useful direction. Now that we’re well into the 21st century, are your kids getting that sort of guidance?
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Studies are a waste of time and prove nothing.
Violence in video games isn't harmful.
Text speak in essays isn't harmful.
These studies obviously never watch real world interactions between kids and the way they communicate.
It's appalling and I am drawing near my limits of listening to them speak. I feel sorry for the next "customer service" idiot who uses the word "like" more than they should.
When any form of text speak hits an essay, it's a problem. There is absolutely no excuse for it and every day, teachers feel they must "give in" due to the increasing usage. Hell, even on reply stated this occurred at a college level.
The problem with this mentality of giving in is it perpetuates itself into adulthood, making it far more difficult for young adults to effectively communicate with their elders.
I see emails enter in my inbox with by people who do use "ur" and post with "smileys", as well as improper sentence structure.
Many of the senders are under the age of 25 and have to, unfortunately, learn proper etiquette in corresponding with their supervisors. It's not fun to watch these kids get "slapped on the wrist" for something they should know after having graduated college.
Apparently not. I can forgive spelling mistakes (your vs you're and the most common to vs too) but I will never tolerate messages like "I see ur going to update me page. Thanks!!! :)"
Yes, that was an actual email message I received.
You can choose to claim it's not "harmful" and do nothing, or you can take a deep breath and educate.
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Re: Techdirt .com
Thank You
Tim
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Re: Keyboards
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Re: Keyboards
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