Is texting ruing people's writing?

[tekmiester]

I've heard stories of kids turning in essays written compltely in SMS texting style.

Hv u cn ths?

Let's hope this trend dosen't continue

[Mickie31]

I think that texting is ruining peoples writing because they get lazy and don't understand about puncutation or the correct spelling. I think the more that texting becomes popular the lazier people will become with their writing. Also you see more and more kids getting into texting at the age where learning is important, I don't see this as a good thing.

[RFL1986]

Texting is probably bad in about the same way as prevalent auto-correct functions on word processors are. As time goes on I'm afraid that a lot of people will lose the ability to spell without computers and will resort to shorthand so much that it will dumb down the intended message.

[KyleMyers]

Text speak is something I never use, even when i'm texting. I think it's rather stupid and is a disgrace to the English language.

[emiglia]

I don't think it has everything to do with texting, but with e-mail in general. People don't use correct spelling or grammar or have a program that corrects them automatically, so they don't know the rules in the end!

[Foytey]

[quote="tekmiester"]I've heard stories of kids turning in essays written compltely in SMS texting style.

Hv u cn ths?

Let's hope this trend doesn't continue[/quote]

That is why as a writer I try and still spell things out and use (, & .).
Only if I am in a huge hurry do I replace English with short forms, tough but necessary.

[Mauvekat]

During my normal day while I am editing for other people I have noticed a larger trend in odd grammar as well as the new text like phrases inside of normal sentences. It has become truly depressing when I see things like "cn" for can, "hv" for have and so forth.

[Roguegal]

The same laziness happened with mathematics when the calculator came out. Now people have to have a calculator to multiply anything. Remember when they had you memorize multiplication tables? I do. I was lucky, my mother refused to let me use a calculator. She also made me sound out everything when I had trouble spelling a word. Then she would hand me a dictionary. Even when I text on my cell phone I use full words. Yes, it takes longer but my English skills remain. So my answer to your question is simply, yes texting is ruining writing skills.

[atula]

texting is bad becasue yes ruining a language is bad.Aslong as you are using it to send messages or write a fast note...I think that is alright but the moment it is sustituted to write essays.....I dont like it....

[Roguegal]

Problem with texting is that kids and teenagers who use it all the time have a tendency to use it in their regular writing. Most of the time they may not even realize it because they are in such a habit of using it with texting.

[econwriter5]

I think text messaging is bringing the issue of poor writing skills to the forefront. These days, people like to take short cuts in order to get something done faster, and cut corners as often as possible. Students today have not been taught the difference between colloquial writing, like texting, vs. more academic writing as you find in English or history papers.

Unless it is a piece of fiction or poetry, texting phrases should not appear in the writing.

Stop and think before you write! And by all means, have someone else read it before you turn it in or send it to a client or associate.

[georgiababy8]

Grammar is already a huge issue and texting throws all grammar out the window. I text on occasion but that doesn't affect my writing. However, I write for a living so that is to be expected.

I could see how it would be something that could transcend in to written materials for kids. They are in a period where learning proper writing is important, but spending all their free time texting is not helping them learn a thing.

I think texting is becoming too much of a staple in the way of communicating. Maybe the trend will die down once the newness wears off. If not then we probably should get used to the abbreviated words and horrible grammar.

[mollyL]

For whatever reason, it doesn't seem that people care about proper spelling and grammar any more. I can't believe some of the posts people sent out, with improper spelling and other mistakes uncorrected. The silver lining in all this is that people who do have an idea about proper writing will get all the writing jobs. Well, we can hope.

[Kitten]

I hate, hate, hate the prevalence of text speech nowadays. I understand using it on phones to save time if your friends understand it, but it's pointless if you don't know how to write otherwise. And it's not just with texting either....online chat started causing issues years ago. Do you know how many papers I've read before that had the "lol" right in it!?

[flowerhorn08]

Yep, people think that it will do no harm in using SMS texting style. And I bet those of us who do online chat also use the same texting style.

If we use them very often, we will find that it is very difficult to revert to our original unabridged writing style when we decide to write some formal essays or articles.

[azaleaeight]

I think it would only ruin a young person's writing if it was a student who hadn't learned good writing practices. Kids who have done well in English class aren't likely to slip into using text language when writing (I wouldn't think). (I know my daughter hasn't.)

[mollyL]

Yes, there's always the danger of slipping into text-style writing and losing your edge and self-discipline. Spell-check I think is the lazy writer's way to go about it. Yes, sometimes they will correct a tense or something really helpfully, but more often, using it just to correct what you know is wrong, you just hit the wrong key. I found myself beginning to rely on it, and I stopped because I don't want my machine to be smarter than me!

[justontime]

I am not a fan of text speech, but it seems to work as a fast and efficient means of communication. I think it is harmless as long as the person has been taught how to read and write properly and they understand when text speech is appropriate and when correct English should be used. Some people know when they should use correct English, but they don't seem to care.

[Taggart]

I do almost no texting, and if I received a work-related text using abbreviations from a busy office I wouldn't think less of the person sending it.

But for any form of casual communication I think there is a huge stigma attached to people using the abbreviations mentioned above .

[atula]

I just read in the papers that textingactually takes longer time to read than normal writing...thais has been proved by a survey....so better write normally if you want to communicate faster....