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BCTW? (But can they write?) |
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Mindy M. Peirce
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Friday, 27 April 2007 |
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The
State Examination Commission in Ireland
has voiced concerns about the effect the growing popularity of text message is
having on writing standards among Irish schoolchildren. According to a brief article on CNN.com, a report
written by the Commission after reviewing the 2006 exam performance of
15-year-olds cites a growing frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation.
A portion of the report, which was published in the Irish
Times, said “Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no
punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing.”
This reminded me of a current commercial for Cingular’s
unlimited text message offering which depicts a mother asking her young
daughter about her cell phone, and her daughter answering in “text language” as
subtitles flash across the page. It’s
easy to get caught up in the mode of communicating in the fastest but simplest
means possible. In fact, recently I was
writing a quick email to someone and realized that I was about to write “u” in
place of “you” as I would do in a text message.
I found it disturbing that the “text message” mentality had carried over
into other forms of communications so naturally.
I think this report
is reflecting what could possibly happen across the world as text messaging,
social networks and other forms of communication continue to grow. Are we going to raise a generation of people
who are tech savvy and social, but unable to write a five paragraph essay
without fundamental writing errors?
That’s probably an overstatement, but as these new channels of
communication continue to grow, I’m sure we will begin seeing more issues like
this popping up.
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