Keeping txt real…
I wear many different hats in my life. Author. Professor. Multimedia Consultant. There are days when these characteristics fight for ownership of my time, and days when they weave themselves quite happily together. I often wonder how I manage, but they seem to have come to some sort of agreement, so I don’t argue.
The writer in me is constantly striving to find better ways to say something. Keeping up with new terminology, catch phrases, and slang is a must. And while I am still striving to find my own voice, I like to think I am more than capable of forming complete phrases and sentences that will convey my thoughts to the reader.
As a teacher I am appalled and astounded at the horrible state of the writing skills that come across my desk…and this is at a college level!
Hand written essays are sloppy and incomplete. Phrases are sometimes so badly broken I have to read them several times in order to figure out what the student is trying to say. Even students who opted to submit their reports digitally ignore the built in spelling and grammar checker.
But the saddest element is the answers that are intermixed with text speak. And yes, I am talking about graded essays that count towards their final marks.
Examples:
“…he went 2 get…”
“…b4 you decide…”
“…know wot u r doing…”
“…prolly for the best…”
The consultant in me shudders to think of this as the future of business correspondence.
Now having said that, I would like to reiterate that I am neither old, nor a technophobe. I am addicted to Twitter and social networking. I type two thousand or more text messages a month, and am more than happy to be working on my dual-monitor pc while simultaneously accessing other files on my laptop.
I love technology, and I embrace it whole heartedly. But like everything else in this world, it has it’s place. No matter how ingrained text speak has become in everyday speech, it does not belong in the boardroom, and it does not belong in the classroom.
All in all it’s quite a simple rule of thumb: you won’t be hired if your cover letter is filled with short forms, and you won’t be graded if your essay is submitted in text speak.
kthxbai
- Nika
The decline of language isn’t limited to “Textish” either. One of the people I follow on Twitter used “partition” where they meant “petition.” I’m sure glad I studied my SAT words…
I’m Graduate Instructional Assistant (GIA) and I teach undergrads in lab, so I completely know where you’re coming from! In fact, my friend and I hold a little competition each semester for worst email sent to us by a student. My favorite so far was from a guy who was perfectly nice, but cursed all the time, and sent me an email with a f*#@ing curse word every other god#*@ word. I still have it. BTW, can’t wait for your next book!!
I love the idea of a competition. I’ll share a few of the ‘phrases’ from the next round of tests in a couple of weeks. I’m sure there are going to be a few priceless artifacts in there!
- Nika
I know how you feel about the decline of standards these days. I was horrified when I attended a writing class where the instructor spoke of a published author who wrote an entire novel using SMS text.
Even newspapers these days are filled with spelling mistakes and misused words. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one saddened by this. Maybe there is hope for the language after all.
I don’t understand how it can even be considered as an acceptable form of the written word. I admit that yes, I do use text speak — when texting. However I would never consider using it in any form of business communication!
Nika