The Gr8 Text Debate

I think text lingo has totally changed the way people write and type, they are now shortening words rather than using the correct splenlig!

It's fine if you use it only to shorten words, but the problem arises when you add that with NO PUNCTUATION!

I can't read it, they can't read it, what the hell?

If I see someone write with txt spelling and no punctuation, I ignore it..

I have better things to do with my time than try to decipher some cryptic code, only to understand someone who didn't take the time to communicate their ideas to me properly!

As a public high school teacher, I have definitely seen how destructive this new texting language can be. I've had students hand in essays written almost entirely in this hybrid-text-speak. It comes across on paper as illiteracy. The result is that 15 and 16 -year olds are turning in writing samples that translate on a grade-school level.

The problem nowadays is that the kids are picking up this bastardized version of our written language at such a young age, that they never learn to differentiate "Text-Speak" from real English as they learn it. I guess it's now the job of every grade school English teacher to instill this understanding in their students.

I agree that spoken vernacular can change with the times, and slang is always a generational thing. But back in the eighties, I never used the phrase "totally tubular!" on an essay for school. I have no issues with my students saying "OMG!" in class. But when they use it in their writing, it's pretty appalling.

I'm at university and some of my class-mates have pretty poor spelling. Which I think is awful, but surely it has to have something to do with the levels of teaching as well as 'txt speak'.

This reminds me of an article I read a while ago about how the computer is making people's handwriting worse ... 2 bad, rly sux.