Decline of Formal Letter Writing

795 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Decline of letter writing

As society and technology advances, formal letter writing is declining rapidly. During the 1800’s, writing formal letters was one of the most effective ways of getting in touch with family and friends that are miles away .You would simply write a letter and send it to your destination. The only problem with this is that people would get tired of waiting for their letter to arrive. Personal, formal writing has greatly decreased by two - three percent every year. New inventions like telephoning, text messaging, and email are the main technology gurus that are at fault for the major decline in formal letter writing. These are the new inventions that the populations have found for a more practical way of communication.

Two out of every five household member use text messaging and send about 2,357 text messages a month ; this brings the question of, What is the reason for writing formal letters ,if writing it in a couple of words is a lot easier and time efficient? Most people believe that writing formal letter is a waste of time. Text messaging is known to be one of the easiest ways of communication with your family and friends. The new generation now days use mostly text message because they are lazy to pick up a pencil and write their thoughts and feelings, and send a letter. They shorten the words to make the message shorter and they use abbreviations like “IDK” which means,”I don’t know”, to shorten their message. The age range that has the highest text message rate is ages 13-17. The older the person is the less text messages are being sent, and the younger the person is the more text messages are being sent. The older the person is the more personal, formal letter writings are sent. Text messaging might be an easier and efficie...

... middle of paper ...

...believe that the new inventions of the telephone, text messaging, and email is a great idea. Sending and receiving letter is a hassle. Having to wait for the other persons response keeps you anxious and it makes you wait a lot longer. Being able to connect with the person in a matter of seconds is great in the sense that you will not have to wait for their response. Technology increases rapidly and I believe that the use of telephoning, text message, and, email will one day decrease as well. As the years go by there are new inventions that may benefit our use of getting our message cross. The formal letter writing is considered an older way of communication and is not useful anymore. It was an event in a time in this world that helped people communicate distances away. As technology is being invented, there are more effortless and efficient ways of sending a letter.

Show More
Related

  • Ashton Kutcher's Has Texting Killed Romance?

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kutcher claims “ We haven’t lost romance in the digital age, but we may be neglecting it, in doing so, acquainted art forms are taking on new importance.The power of a handwritten letter is greater than ever. It’s personal and deliberate and means more than e-mail or text ever will.’’(96)Handwriting is different and unique for each individual. You can look at the letter and judge how much effort a person put into writing it. The mistakes they make show how we as humans are not perfect. and in an intimate relationship writing to your signficant other in a sense you are giving them apart of yourself.It shows feeling, sensitivity and thoughtfulness.Your thoughts and feelings written on paper that they can go back and review it at any time they wish. It has much more meaning versus a text that may have taken just a few seconds. The meaning behind handwriting and letters are by far much deeper. It takes a few effortless seconds to glide ones fingers across a screen and send a text.The effort put into a text does not compare to the time thought out in physical form. Thus the connection is simply not as

    Read More

  • John Mcwhorter: Txtng Is Killing The English Language

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Twob Or Not 2b David Crystal Summary

    93 Words  | 1 Pages

    Numerous studies have shown how texting can actually improve our literacy skills. In the article “2b or Not 2b” by David Crystal, he believes that is a new form of communication and will not harm our language in any way. He states that a study has proven people who use a lot of abbreviations in their text messages tend to score higher on reading and vocabulary test. According to David Crystal, to be able to write well the first thing you have to know is how letters relate to sounds throughout each language.

    Read More

  • The Slaughter of the English Language

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Defending the Intelligence of Today's Generation

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    Technology is not killing our ability to write, but it is reviving it and pushing our literacy to new directions. Andrea Lunsford, from Stanford University, conducted an experiment to scrutinize college students way of writing. Her results were alarming, "I think we are in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization." Lunsford discovered that only 38% of students writing occurred within the classroom, the rest was written in their own free time. Most of our socializing now takes place online and always involves text or writing. Before the Internet, most of our communication was verbal. The only time Americans wrote was for a school assignment and if their job required writing. Otherwise most people didn't write another paragraph once they left

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Nicholas Carr´s Is Google Making USupid

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Text Messaging: 2b or not 2b? by David Crystal

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Does Texting Affect Writing Michaela Cullington Summary

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    British linguist and author David Crystal once said, "Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster." It is believed that texting has a negative impact on the way people write today, but Crystal counters that statement. Is he right? Or does the continuous use of communication through texting affect people's formal writing?

    Read More

  • Letter Writing In Jane Bingley's Pride And Prejudice

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    The art of writing letters has existed as long as human existence. People may not have always written on paper with pens to each other but maybe on stones with carvings. As long as people have lived, communication has occurred. It has evolved over the years to emails and then texting. The significance of writing a personal letter will never top sending a quick text however. Writing a letter holds more significance and personal gratitude then a text message ever will. Writing styles vary more and people can gather more of a sense what person feels when they write to another person rather than reading something in the same text on a screen. Over the years technology has become simpler and people have gotten lazier which makes it more convenient for people to send a text rather than people taking the time to sit down and write a heartfelt letter. In the book Pride and Prejudice letter writing takes place all throughout the book. The characters all show different styles and

    Read More

  • Effects Of Texting On Teen Literacy

    1485 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • EMAIL ETIQUETTE

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    Angell, David, and Brent Heslop. The Elements of E-Mail Style: Communication Effectively Via Electronic Mail. Canada: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994.

    Read More

  • Essay On Text Literacy

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    Text messages have a bit of a history before it became one of the fastest ways of communication through a written form. When a message to someone needed to be sent in the early ages, the only way that was done was through a hand written letter sent through a carrier pigeon. As generations past, these hand-written letters sealed with a stamp in an envelope were still sent but sent through the Post Office. It was not until 1969 when the first Internet was created that a quicker method to send a message was created (Bellis, “The History of Communication”). When the Internet was created, electronic mail was invented and this is when you can send letters through the Internet and would arrive to the recipient’s computer almost instantly. There was no need for paper...

    Read More

  • The Evolution Of Communication, Technology And Business Communication

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    It changes how we communicate, when we communicate, where we can communicate, how often we communicate and what accessories we use to communicate. Overall, everything about writing has changed. Jobs are changing and some are being eliminated because of the increase in technology. Students’ writing has changed so much because of how much and how fast they are communicating on a regular basis. The tools we use to communicate have changed from verbal to nonverbal. Technology has really changed the efficiency, speed, and simplicity of business

    Read More

  • Mass Communication Essay

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    Traditional letters, circulars, handouts, posters are going to shut because of the use of internet gave birth to e-mails. At n...

    Read More

More about Decline of Formal Letter Writing

Open Document