The informal style of e-mails and text messages is seeping into teenagers’ schoolwork, according to a study cited in this morning’s New York Times.
“Two-thirds of 700 students surveyed said their e-communication style sometimes bled into school assignments, according to the study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the College Board’s National Commission on Writing,” notes the paper. “About half said they sometimes omitted proper punctuation and capitalization in schoolwork. A quarter said they had used emoticons like smiley faces. About a third said they had used text shortcuts like “LOL” for “laugh out loud.”
“I think this is not a worrying issue at all,” said Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project, which aims to improve the teaching of writing, who opines that texting style, like slang, offers a teachable moment on what’s acceptable in academic writing. He also noted that some e-mail conventions, like starting sentences without a capital letter, may well become accepted practice.”
No more capital letters? A writing professor really said that? WTF!!! (For those of you who are not IM savvy, that stands for “Welcome to Finland.”)
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