Study Proposal: The Effect of Texting on Students' Test Scores and GPA

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.

In today’s society, digital technology became an important part of our daily lives. Advanced technologies such as smart phones, improved the connection and engagement with people around the world, and easily accessed information throughout the internet. However, many critics argued that these technology are causing negative influences among teenagers; for instances, many pointed out that texting affect the way we think and write, in which I strongly disagreed. There are no connection or comparison among texting and writing.

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.

McDonald, Sylvia. (2013). “The effects and predictor value of in-class texting behavior on final course grades”. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid

In recent discussion of, “Does Texting Affects Writing” by Michaela Cullington, one view is that texting has a negative impact on teens and their writing. Cullington shows both sides of what students, teachers, and professors have to say about the issue of texting; yet after research this belief may not prove to be true. Then she writes about personal experience regarding the issue.

When most people think about teen literacy, they refer to texting. Most people think that texting harms teenagers, but in reality it does not. Text messaging is perhaps one of the things people do most daily, especially teenagers. These days teens are nearly inseparable from their phones. Teenagers are growing with an increasing rate with these cell phones. Teens depend on their cell phones to get through day to day things dealing with personal and professional lives. Although when people think about texting, it is not a bad thing. It has its pros and cons, and to think it has more pros than anything. Texting is very much influenced by advancement in technology. Experts say that technology has put a new emphasis on writing and reading in today 's generation. Technology also adds new layers to understanding and what is means to be literate. It requires the combination of manual, visual, and cognitive attention. Texting helps our communication skills, language skills, writing skills, and classroom skills.

According to the writing, “That alarms some linguists, who worry that the proliferation of text messaging — where cellphone users type and send short messages to other phones or computers — will enforce sloppy, undisciplined habits among American youths” (Linguists Mixed on Effects of Text Messaging). The “undisciplined habits” in text messaging is used in academic classes. As a result, students are affected due to the common use of altered language in text messaging.

Likewise, it made sense to trust that young people’s inclusion in texting with their friends who use textisms might have assumed a negative part too. With the majority of the data that has been assembled from all of the studies and displayed in this paper, it appears as though there are some clashing results. A number of studies recommend that using textisms in text messaging negatively affects one's education abilities, while others propose that messaging does improve literacy skills. After studying all the informations gathered, I am under the opinion that text messaging is adaptive and supplementary rather than necessarily

Nowadays, when technology becomes more popular, text messaging has been used by cell phone users to help them communicate faster and easier. It is a very convenient way, and people think that text messaging has become an integral part of their lives, so they depend on those devices for communication instead of real talk. According to the article "Txt Msg N School Literacy," the author found that "about ninety percent of the youth have cell phones and that ninety- six percent of this group uses them to text" (Plester, et all 137). Remarkably, the majority of these people are teenagers. What are some of the disadvantages that texting is having on the teen literacy? On the light side, texting allows people to have time to express their thoughts and maintain their relationships just by their fingers. However, depending too much on the correction feature of those function makes people become quite a weakness in their literacy and have a "big gap" with society skills.

The article Through Questions on Texting in the Classrooms discusses and answers the questions that haven’t been answered about texting during class time. This topic is somehow major because after completing a survey, “98% of the students … texted some time during the term.” Speaking of myself, I can not multitask, this means that if I text during class time or any other place, my ears automatically shut and creates a barrier that I am currently not in the place I am at. On the other hand, this is something that I have to learn to love because I am a person that accepts reality and have to survive with this cause.

In our culture cell phones are the number one use of communication today. Cell phones are everywhere, even in colleges with a total of 94 percent of college students having and or using one. This research studies examines the effects of in class texting of freshmen level classes of the social science department. Three different sections of students were chosen and each group was giving a different in class texting policy they had to follow. They monitored their final grades, SATs, ACTs and GPAs. SAT and ACT are used to predict how your attention and grades will be in college, while your ACT and GPA shows how freshmen GPAs would be. After the experiment was over each student received a survey to fill out about how the experiment went. Overall in class texting had a negative effect on final grades by 22 percent.

In their article Clayson and Haley, reported that the result of the effect that texting has on marketing students while taking classes. They knew that texting can affect students because they cannot be focus on the lectures if they are texting. The reason of Clayson and Haley´s investigation was to know how texting really affects students’ behaviors, and how frequently they text people or friends. For these research, Clayson and Haley have made a survey which showed them the thoughts of students who were attending marketing classes in two different universities. As a result of their research, Clayson and Haley confirmed that marketing students tried to follow the lecture while listening to the lecture. For Clayson and Haley, texting makes the class less formal and not professional. Even though students know that they cannot be texting in the classroom, they continue to do so. Results of texting during class, makes students have lower grades and GPAs.

Many kids/teens use short handed text. The over use of texting affects the way students write in class.(2) Teenagers use text messaging more than any other form of communication. There is no doubt that when young people spend large amounts of time using cell phones, this activity also permanently impacts the maturation and development of their brains.(8) Smartphones are changing our nation of acceptable behavior, privacy, and social doomshine are being unprotected because anything can link to the internet.(5) Back in the day when our parents were growing up technology was not much used like it is now.

To observe whether or not texting in adolescence reduces writing, I will start by constructing my correlational study. The participants I have chosen for this study are college aged students all of the same age, for example, I will study 15-25 different freshmen students who own cell phones. For recruitment for my study I will send out an email to all freshman students on campus, included in this email would be the location and time in which this study will take place. This email will also advertise that individuals who make it through the entire 4 weeks of the study will receive a new cell phone for participating. Once I have received responses from the amount of participants I will make sure to reinsure them of the time and location this study will take place. First I will ask all the participants to sit around a table with their cell phones in front of them as I explain to them what the purpose of this study is for, because they are all over the age of 18 I ask each

Texting is sabotaging the youth in today’s society. Teenagers are not experiencing as much face to face interactions as they probably should be. Instead, they’re becoming more dependent on communication through texting. Many teenagers would prefer to send a text message than to make a phone call and that’s sad. Because people are so reliant on