Roxy Wilson
ENC1101
10/18/17
Professor McLawhorn
Text messaging or texting, as it’s commonly called—is the process of sending or receiving messages via a cellular device. It is a common means of communication among teenagers and even becoming popular in the business world because it allows quick messages to be sent without people having to talk through a telephone conversation. A person is able to say what is needed, in addition the other person will receive the information and respond when it's convenient for them. “Does Texting affect writing”, This Essay was written By Michaela Cullington the main purpose in her essay is if texting really influences students writing skills. Cullington proposed that there are three points of view to
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Although her study supports the hypothesis that texting plus writing have no relationship to one another, Cullington recognizes the importance of new technology and society’s evolving methods of communication. She writes, “The use of text messaging as a common means of communication is becoming increasingly popular; therefore, this issue should continue to be examined.” Cullington may not have anticipated the ways in which texting itself has changed. One of the differences between now and two years ago are the abbreviations plus the use of acronyms. However, what has made the device so distinctive is that texting has actually gotten “smarter.” People with smartphones have the assistance of spellcheck, reference “apps,” autocorrect, autocompletion and, voice-control capability. Also know as Siri the response voice of the iPhone’s voice-control system. In the past, text messages were ultimately just instant, electronic versions of a brief …show more content…
I personally think that texting does indeed have tremendous effect on formal writing, Texting has its costs and benefits. So while we texting we could use the spellcheck feature to correct our spelling mistakes as guide or a teacher to help us spelling it correctly next time. On the other hand, we might have become dependent on such Features. Auto-correct doesn’t pick up all of the errors for example sometimes when you write a sentence with the word to, the device may not recognize that you are using the wrong word. Autocorrect recognizes a misspelled word as well as replacing it with what is likely to be the correct word. In many ways, autocorrect and autocompletion are very useful in their efficiency; however, it is reasonable to assume that they have the opposite effect of learning. Instead of giving someone the help they need to correct his or her mistakes, autocorrection notifications are so brief that the person is barely aware of a mistake before it is erased from existence
This is where she uses ethos to provide the reader with an understanding that she is a credible writer. First she uses the National Center for Education Statistics information to provide a strong base of knowledge regarding the topic that is already available. The article from the National Center for Education Statistics includes a quote from a teacher stating “the use of acronyms and shorthand in text messages for students’ inability to spell and ultimately to write well” (pg. 2). She goes on to explain teacher’s viewpoints and their beliefs on the topic after seeing a decrease in writing abilities. There is a quote included by Naomi Baron, a professor at American University, in which states “so much of American society has become sloppy and laissez faire about the mechanics of writing” (pg.2). This quote provides evidence that everyone should be concerned about the effects because our society is facing the issues as well not only students. As she continues to provide a foundation for others ideas regarding the topic, she changes viewpoints to those who see the positives in texting. Cullington uses an author to elaborate on the positives that increased texting can have on individuals. David Crystal explains that students “sharpen their diplomatic skills . . . [because] it allows more time to formulate their thoughts and express them carefully” (pg.4). This is something that is important in today’s day and age where people want the short and sweet version, not something drawn out that can be hard to understand. In her background information regarding the positive aspects of texting, she uses emotions to connect with the reader when she discusses children who struggle with writing. Texting can help students “overcome their awkwardness and develop their social and communication skills” Crystal states (pg. 5). The use of emotion is key to capturing
To ensure that formal written language is preserved, a clear distinction must be made between formal writing and texting. Students -as well as adults- must also be given sufficient practice in both areas if they are to clearly communicate their thoughts to others through either means. As quoted from Nicole Wood and Becky Wang in their presentation “Is Texting Killing the English Language”, “the most common misuses by students are ... using only the letter ‘u’ … [and] using the letter ‘r’...” These errors in formal essays are often -and in most cases- caused by confusion of the distinction between texting and formal writing, leading to an overlap between the two. The value of formal written language is its ability to clearly and distinctly communicate one’s ideas to another -and because of its overall consistency regardless of time- even those in the future. Texting, in some cases however, loses this ability to clearly communicate thoughts and ideas, and exclusively texting at home could lead to a decline in one’s ability to clearly communicate with others through writing.
Although one would argue that technology has advanced enormously and changed how people interact, Cullington notes that texting has little to no effect on formal writing. The students that Cullington sought opinion from were not aware that text abbreviations were appropriate for formal writing. She further adds that textspeak will remain harmless as long as language is applied in the correct place rather than in formal
Text messaging is a technology that contributes to the great decline of the English language. The English language is often butchered through the use of text messaging. In Orwell’s essay, he states “An effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form” (446). Main stream society is too lazy to correct any grammar and punctuation in a text message, leading to the assumption that it is not important, after all it is only a text message. Thus, this shows the English language is in decline, when society is to lazy to take a few extra second to correct spelling and punctuation errors . One would not be able to write the same way in an academic essay as they would in a text message. If one would do so, that student would receive an F. No English teacher, or for that matter any teacher, would be thrilled nor impressed reading an essay filled with these common texting erors.
In her essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” author Michaela Cullington argues about the influence texting has on student writing. Cullington claims, after her research, that texting has minimal impact on how a student formally writes, although educators counter this argument because they have witnessed these mistakes first hand.
The fastest growing form of communication in America’s society is texting. David Mercer brings up a valid argument about how the appearance of texting was not a slow process, parents never had an opportunity to experience texting so they have no way of teaching their children how to use it responsibly (Carter). Texting is so common it carries over into our everyday lives easily and at times becomes controlling. America’s society thrives on the conveniences texting provides us. While texting is fast and convenient it has numerous faults that affect our society mentally and socially. Texting can be beneficial as it simplifies our lives at times; however, there are numerous negative effects texting has on our society.
Texting is a common method of communication nowadays. Human interaction has been inevitably changing over its existence - from speaking to handwritten messages to email, for example. Though many people consider texting a bad influence on a person’s vocabulary and grammar, it is not killing writing. It is obvious that English will change in the future, and texting is just a fluctuation in its evolution. The TED Talks video “Txting is killing language. JK!” by John McWhorter and the article “Is Text Messaging Ruining English?” by Jane Solomon both describe how texting is affecting writing.
“Our generation doesn't ring the doorbell. They text or call to say they're outside,” this line is from one of the well-known social networks, Tweeter, which shows how the way of communication has change in this modern life. According to 2013 statistics by Business Insider, in United States alone, smartphone owners aged 18 to 24 send 2,022 texts per month on average — 67 texts on a daily basis — and receive another 1,831 texts (Cocotas). Nowadays, technology such as text messaging has practically replaced traditional face to face communication among the society primarily in young generations because texting allows messages to be sent fast and effortless. In order to quickly type what they are trying to say in text messaging, people are frequently using textspeak; the language created by using abbreviation rather than complete words. Based on this phenomenon, David Crystal, an honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales has published an article entitled ‘2b or not 2b?’ in the Guardian on July 5, 2008 comes out with the research and studies that state texting can actually improve the literacy of children and create creativity of writing. However, by observing more critically, texting do decrease a person’s ability to switch between textspeak and the normal rules of grammar and adversely affect formal writing and conversational skills.
In the article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, the author Michaela Cullington conveys her speculation that texting does not correlate to how students write formal essays. At the beginning of the article Cullington introduces the term texting and the convenience texting brings. Later expressing her concern that the texting language “Textspeak” is actually affecting students writing; then contradicts these views by using primary and secondary sources (news articles, books, her own surveys and research). In addition, she uses an anecdote to tell of her own experience with texting and writing. Together with other evidences and research put together, she uncovers the debate between textspeak and formal writing. On the basis of her research, she concludes that the state of texting does not interfere with writing or writing abilities.
It's taking over our lives. We can do it almost anywhere. What is it? It's texting! Texting is a reliable, easy and convenient form of communication that is most commonly used by, but not limited to millenials and those in the workforce. Many people use it as a way to express themselves as well. In Michaela Cullington’s article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she targets two different attitudes in relation to texting. Cullington explains that there is often an assumption that students who use abbreviations when they text, will bring those same abbreviations over to their formal writing pieces. Cullington then adds that the other attitude in relation to writing skills and texting insists that texting is harming student’s writing capabilities. Because of her research as well as experiments done by other colleagues of hers, it shows that
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
The use inventive spelling, abbreviations. As high school students start to use short texting, some of their grades dropped due to the spelling errors they make. So many teens get used to wing abbreviating that they just begin to write that that way. Some teenagers writing skills have turned into sentence fragments, because of the limited space they put into text sentence. In my research how does texting affect teen literacy the percentage was 64 percent of students who say they incorporated text language in their writing, 25 percent said they did so to convey have used text shortcuts a lot of students, vocabulary and grammar is also affecting their literacy. The outlook of the teachers is that. Text plus recently released results of its own survey of 1,214 teens that use their services. 43 percent of which have texted in class, they seem to pay more attention to their phone than what the teacher is teaching. They seem to have the phones that will spell the word for them so they have to worry about spelling. In the age of text message, where words are reduce to no stand abbreviating, symbols, But in my research I pointed out that technology has put new emphasis on reading and
Powell, D., & Dixon, M. (2011). Does SMS text messaging help or harm adults’ knowledge of standard spelling?. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(1), 58–66. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00403.x
Step onto any college campus and take a look around. You will find clumps of students standing around in circles, phones in hand, typing away. What is it they are doing? Texting. Ever since the first text message was sent in 1993, the use of text messaging as a means of communication has spread like wild fire, especially amongst the adolescent generation. And with this new form of communication a new language has appeared; text-speak, the shortening of common words into abbreviations and acronyms (Drouin 49). While texting and the text-speak language seem to have been welcomed by many, what affect is this new technology having on the way we communicate? Is it possible that texting is negatively affecting our ability to use formal written communication, or is this idea just a myth perpetuated by negative media attention? And what changes has texting brought to the way we communicate person-to person? Are these changes positive, negative, or perhaps a mixture of both?
Rosenberg, Tina. "Everyone Speaks Text Message." 2011. First-Year Writing: Writing in the Disciplines. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 267-271. Print.