Teachers - do you find that texting habits are affecting students' writing habits?

[KristaTX]

I'll be honest. We have AT&T now, but we started with Cingular before those two companies bought each other (C bought AT&T's cell division, then AT&T's mother company bought C? something like that). And now the word "singular" looks wrong wrong wrong just BEYOND wrong. I never have to use it, but sometimes I'll think it or hear it (and when I hear words I tend to spell them in my head) and I want to default to C instead of S as the first letter.

Great point. Cingular (the phone company) and Singulair (the medication) have both confused the spelling and pronunciation of the word "singular". Even though I am a good and picky speller, sometimes even my brain gets mixed up - especially with the pronunciation. Because of my career in allergies/asthma, I say and spell the word "Singulair" much more often than I do the word "singular", and I also always want to call the phone service "Cingulair". I've seen medical assistants in my office write the word Cingular on medication lists when they mean Singulair.

I have one friend who recently joined Facebook. She is a very bright young woman, and it shocked me to see her writing in text-speak and other slang (e.g. "Dat" for "That") on her longer Facebook posts. It just makes people sound uneducated to write full paragraphs like that . But I guess she could have been typing on her phone, which makes a little more sense since it can be more difficult to type on a phone.

 

[JCJRSmith]

I'm a 15 year old girl and I use proper grammar, both on the internet and in text messages. I have a full keyboard on my phone, so it isn't any inconvience to me to make it grammatically correct. I know I'm in the minority here though

I do use things like "lol" and "tbh" or whatever, but I thought it was common sense not to use them in essays and other important documents.

Keep up the good work, kiddo. It will serve you well later in life.


I have coworkers who are under orders that they are to release no documents from our department to the rest of the company unless they are reviewed by others because of their poor gramar and spelling, and now texting "shorthand" is creeping in as well.

 

[KimR]

I think it carries over not just in the classroom but into everyday life as well. Adults are just as guilty as anyone else. Heck, just browse through some threads on these boards and you'll see what I mean. There are so many posts full of horrendous spelling and grammar. Not just the occasional typo but so many errors that sometimes it's difficult to decipher what the person is trying to say. Ten years ago most of what was posted on the internet was well written with proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Nowadays that's the exception rather than the norm.

This trend has puzzled me for a long time - why, all of a sudden do we seem to be moving more and more towards illiteracy? And then the other day I was IM'ing someone at work and realized how often my messages are full of typos, poor punctuation, and horrible sentence structure - words transposed, duplicated, or simply left out. I have a lot to say in a short amount of time, no time to proofread and my messages reflect that.

I think people have gotten so used to IM and texting that it's just the way they write now. It's kind of scary.

 

[stashbin]

It does carry over into the classroom.

 

[stashbin]

I think it carries over not just in the classroom but into everyday life as well. Adults are just as guilty as anyone else. Heck, just browse through some threads on these boards and you'll see what I mean. There are so many posts full of horrendous spelling and grammar. Not just the occasional typo but so many errors that sometimes it's difficult to decipher what the person is trying to say. Ten years ago most of what was posted on the internet was well written with proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Nowadays that's the exception rather than the norm.

This trend has puzzled me for a long time - why, all of a sudden do we seem to be moving more and more towards illiteracy? And then the other day I was IM'ing someone at work and realized how often my messages are full of typos, poor punctuation, and horrible sentence structure - words transposed, duplicated, or simply left out. I have a lot to say in a short amount of time, no time to proofread and my messages reflect that.

I think people have gotten so used to IM and texting that it's just the way they write now. It's kind of scary.

ITA with everything you just said. If you look around, it goes beyond the occassional misusage or typo. IMO, it is because students are not taught spelling the way they used to be. Spelling is now content based and most students do not have spelling lists to study each week. When I was in school, we wrote our spelling words 5 times each daily. Not today! My daughter is in the 3rd grade and there is none of that.
Also, since less of the students are reading for pleasure, they are not seeing words in print as often as before. Thus effecting their spelling skills. Texting has decreased their skills absolutely. However, I think it is a combination of things that is causing this epidemic of non-spellers.

 

[Feralpeg]

Slightly off topic, I also find that young people have a very difficult time writing in cursive. When forced to actually write something, most print. Often times, their printing is horrible. They won't use cursive unless forced to do so. When they do have to use it, it is practically illegible.

I realize that most people prefer to type, but their are situations when penmanship is a good skill to have. It think it is a shame that schools have moved away from stressing penmanship skills.

That being said, I asked my students to type their papers. I couldn't read their handwriting.

 

[paintnolish]

Handwriting vs. typing- Unless you have a computer lab that you have taken your students to (allowed class time), I don't think you can require work to be typed. The school I am in right now is 43% low income. Not everyone has access to computers.

Also, my senior seminar teacher told the class something very interesting. I will try to get the source for you. Anyway, he said that even with the advent of technolgy, the amount of mistakes per page or paragraph really hasn't changed. They might be different, but they still occur with the same frequency.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I have a friend who teaches graduate level coursework at a university. She notices it as well.

"Shorthand" is not a new concept--wasn't that what was taught to secretaries decades ago? I wonder if teachers and professors had any issues with shorthand creeping into school assignments. To me, texting is no different.

The only way to nip it in the bud is to have zero tolerance for it. The kids won't know it isn't appropriate at all if it was treated as simple as misspelling a word.

I remember in college, I was a telecommunications student in the College of Journalism and Communications. Assignments were worth 100 points. Any written assignment that contained a fact error automatically lost 50 of those points. So you failed the assignment significantly before they even graded the content.

Misspellings or typos were considered fact errors. In that field, 100% accuracy is important, so in school--they made sure you got that message. Sure tv and print can go and correct errors later, but there is a cost to that.

If you made the mistake in class, you usually only made it once because the penalty was so severe.

All teachers have to do is hold the student accountable then pet peeve errors would diminish.

Shorthand, slang, and texting are not "academic" forms of communications and should never enter into an academic assignment.

 

[PrincesCJM]

Absolutely!!! I'm a math teacher and although I don't require much complete sentences, I see the affects. It took me awhile to figure out what "idk" meant on my tests! idk=I don't Know

 

[bumbershoot]

Great point. Cingular (the phone company) and Singulair (the medication) have both confused the spelling and pronunciation of the word "singular". Even though I am a good and picky speller, sometimes even my brain gets mixed up - especially with the pronunciation.

So glad I'm not alone on that one.

Slightly off topic, I also find that young people have a very difficult time writing in cursive. When forced to actually write something, most print. Often times, their printing is horrible. They won't use cursive unless forced to do so. When they do have to use it, it is practically illegible.

Isn't that interesting. My 5 year old is chomping at the bit to learn cursive!

 

[Had2stopLurking]

As per my syllabus (handed out to every student at the beginning of the semester)

ANY paper turned in with text speak will be automatically DENIED as acceptable and you will receive a 0. This policy is NOT up for discussion. In addition, Wikipedia is NOT a valid resource for factual information. If you need help in finding resources, please do not hesitate to call me or come by during my office hours. Any Wikipedia reference will automatically deduct 10 points on your paper.

 

[m!ssemmx0]

I'm 15, and I use proper grammar all the time, even if it is in a text. Text-speak just annoys me, so I prefer to write everything out.