Informal Texting

Personally, I often abbreviate my words when I send messages. I type u for you, cos for because, 2moro for tomorrow, gdnite for goodnight, etc. I don’t think these will affect my sensitivity to standard English because I just use abbreviations for typing faster. The invention of SMS itself is for people to contact more convenient. By using abbreviations, I can save time and energy, which is adapted to the fast-paced life in New York City.

In Michaela Cullington’s essay titled, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” the author tests the ongoing question of how today’s youth handles the effects of texting in the education system. Using successful evidence from both sides of the argument as well as participating in her own experiment, Cullington is able to fully demonstrate how texting does not interfere with today’s students and their abilities to write formally in the classroom.

The result verified that there is evidence of a decline in grammar scores based on the number of abbreviations in their sent and received text messages (Swayne and Messer). In other words, the word abbreviations and punctuation short-cuts that famously used in text messaging can alter individuals’ ability to recognize and apply proper spelling, grammar and punctuation techniques in writing and daily life communication. If the uses of abbreviations are not controlled from the beginning, both sender and receiver of text messaging will be associated with how poorly they will perform on the test based on the level of standard literacy they have.

Michaela Cullington’s essay “Texting and Writing” explores the possible effect of teen texting on formal writing in school. Cullington lists three different hypotheses scholars pose about the cor- relation between the two: those who criticize texting for its negative impact on writing, those who believe texting is actually a beneficial exercise in writing, and those who see no relationship at all. Cullington begins her analysis with the first theory, quoting concerned teachers, citing the shock- ing statistic that “only 25% of high school seniors are ‘proficient’ writers” (90), and adding testi- mony from two of her former teachers. Cullington then explores the second take on texting and writing by providing contrasting testimony from other teachers who believe that texting is a bless- ing to their students’ writing. Cullington retrieves support for these two opposing views from inter- views and previous studies. To explore the theory that texting is irrelevant to formal writing, how- ever, she performs her own research, gathering results from seven students, two teachers, and an analysis of students’ written work. Despite the testimonial evidence against and in support of tex- ting, Cullington’s own results show that texting has “no effect, positive or negative, on [students’] writing as a result of texting” (95).

We as a society are evolving with each generation to come. We are getting stronger, faster, and smarter. Just as cell phones are no longer square blocks with numbers on them and TV’s are not in black and white, writing itself has also evolved. Once upon a time many wrote and spoke in a Shakespearean form of language and over the years it has evolved into something we call modern English. In recent years, technology has advanced greatly and cell phones have become one of our primary use of communication. With cell phones came a new form of writing called text messaging. Text messaging is used to send short, concise messages to anyone around the world. Often times text messages involve the use of abbreviations which stand for different things and also involves frequent use of emoji’s as a form of expression. This form of writing is now considered informal writing and is not acceptable in academic settings. In Michaela Cullington’s essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she touches on both sides of whether texting is hindering students writing or if it’s actually having a positive effect. She then makes is clear that she believes most students are educated enough to know when text speak is appropriate and when it’s not so therefore it has no effect on students. Although, I agree with her thesis, she lacks credibility due to her insufficient evidence. In addition, I also believe

Texting has fast become the preferred form of communication for young adults; however, students need to be dissuaded from texting during class because of the result in loss of valuable class time, lack of effective communication skills, and consistent use of improper English leading to a negative impact on students’ learning.

Writing College, Writing Life’s article Learning the Language by Perri Klass talks about how some professions require abbreviations, which is one of the few times it is accecptable. Abbrevaitons can be helpful and an easy way to write a few words in just a few letters. Teachers do not like abbreviations because the writer tends to assume the reader knows what each acronym means, the paper should be and enjoyable read, not a confusing puzzle. While writing a paper for school teachers do not approve of abbreviation and acronyms, the writer should just take his or her time to write our each word correctly.

Using this strategy is effective because everyone has emotions. How you write your essay you can trigger whatever emotion you want your reader to feel. In "Texting and Writing" by Michaela Cullington does exactly that. For example from the very first sentences, "It's taking over our lives. We can do it almost anywhere....What is it? It's texting!" (Cullington 403). Being informal in an essay can build common ground it's more like you are reading what your friend sent you and how you would speak normally. This appeals to emotions because you can relate. It can express happy emotions or upset emotions that you have dealt with when reading texts from people. Texting has changed how we view words and how we see them. Cullington states, "Each student admitted to using abbreviations in writing on occasion" (Cullington 408). Abbreviations can link back to the first article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" As a supporting example that we do not want to read lengthy paragraphs. We see abbreviations as a way out and Cullington does a great job explaining abbreviations, its also all over technology such as

There has been claims that texting can adversely affect students’ formal writing skills. Michaela Cullington, author of “Does Texting Affect Writing”, responds to these claims by saying that texting does not affect students’ formal writing but helps them improve it. She mentions that texting teaches students’ how to write concisely, students’ know that textspeak is only appropriate when texting and not when writing formally, and that texting allows students’ to have a casual setting to practice their writing which help improve their formal writing. All of Cullington’s arguments are invalid; texting does harm students’ formal writing in multiple ways such as: writing texts “concisely” is not beneficial since students will forget how to expand

Throughout “Does Texting Affect Writing?” words such as textspeak, communication, writing, writing abilities, students and teenagers are

In Crystal’s view, “If you are aware that your texting behavior is different, you must have already intuited that there is such a thing as a standard” (Crystal 345). When texting, it is important to be aware that texting is a different form of writing than writing a paper for a class in school. There are many people, including myself, who use “u” instead of “you” or “cuz” instead of “because” when texting. When texting a friend, the way we communicate is casual, so abbreviations and shortcuts are acceptable. When I am writing a paper for one of my classes, I know that I cannot use those shortcuts and abbreviations in my paper because it is not grammatically correct.

The abbreviation is usually caught in student’s paper as well as they are so used to it that they don't even recognize using it. That may cause a bigger issue when they start writing a job application or business proposal within using a bunch of shorthand and emoji faces. In fact, texting acronym and shorthand as “ttyl"( talk to you later) or “gr8” (great) restrict young writers’ mind. It shows a decline in building complete sentences or accomplished a critical idea. And yet texting does not “stress the importance of punctuation". However, It seems like Cullington is trying to persuade people to the opposite idea. The sources have an accurate data and those situation, such as teachers are complaining about their students are lack of writing skills which is blamed on texting addiction, are real. It’s obviously an evidence whether it’s limited or not. Nevertheless, Cullington believes that It just "based on just a few personal experiences rather than on a significant amount of

Abbreviations such as lol (laugh out loud), brb (be right back), and ttyl (talk to you later) are commonly used when texting, yet are not really shown in formal writing. Students reported that text speaking formal writing. “Other students use these abbreviations and other speak text in their writing, but catches their mistakes quickly”. (Cullington 364). Supporting her research Cullington asked participants to complete questionnaires’’… the research hypothesized that texting and the use of abbreviations would have a negative impact on students. However, the results did not support their hypothesis. (Cullington 369).

Text messaging is the most widely used data appliance in the world, with 2.4 billion users, or 74% of all mobile phone subscribers (Tedeschi, 2008). Market analysis reveals that consumers purchase phone applications readily because it is effortless to download an application onto their mobile phone and also since cash out of pocket is not required, it simply gets added to their phone bill. Teenagers represent the largest spectrum of these consumers, who are eager to show off the stunning features of their new phone to their peers. Parents typically pay the cost of their cell phone plans and typically are unaware of small charges made on the account. Most phone application downloads range from free demos to $9.99 pricing.

We use abbreviations and emoji’s to get our point across. As college students we send so many texting messages that we do not realize that we hold on to those habits of using incorrect spelling and full sentences. Using this way of communication so often has caused college students to carry it over to formal writing projects. Texting is another form of writing, some would believe that it will help with our writing skills but at the same time it making us lose our depth when it comes to writing. Students don’t use a much detail when it comes to writing papers. Grammar gets affected and we get in the habit of abbreviating our words which do not help enhance our writing at all. This articles just goes through saying that texting reflects on a lot more than just students language skills.