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Nikki Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 2:25 PM |
Just picked up this story from the wire and thought I'd share. Pretty interesting...
Teens let popular lingo creep into their writing
• Schools try to keep style more formal.
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s nothing to LOL about: Despite best efforts to keep school writing assignments formal, two-thirds of teens admit in a survey that emoticons and other informal styles have crept in.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in a study released Thursday, also found that teens who keep blogs or use social-networking sites like Facebook or News Corp.’s MySpace have a greater tendency to slip nonstandard elements into assignments.
The results may give parents, teachers and others a big :( — a frown to the rest of us — though the study’s authors see hope.
“It’s a teachable moment,” said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew. “If you find that in a child’s or student’s writing, that’s an opportunity to address the differences between formal and informal writing. They learn to make the distinction ... just as they learn not to use slang terms in formal writing.”
Half of the teens surveyed say they sometimes fail to use proper capitalization and punctuation in assignments, while 38 percent have carried over the shortcuts typical in instant messaging or email messages, such as “LOL” for “laughing out loud.” A quarter of teens have used :) and other emoticons.
Overall, 64 percent have used at least one of the informal elements in school.
Teens who consider electronic communications with friends as “writing” are more likely to carry the informal elements into school assignments than those who distinguish the two.
The study was co-sponsored by the National Commission on Writing at the College Board, the nonprofit group that administers the SAT and other placement tests.
The chairman of the commission’s advisory board, Richard Sterling, said the rules could possibly change completely within a generation or two: Perhaps the start of sentences would no longer need capitalization, the way the use of commas has decreased over the past few decades. “Language changes,” Sterling said.
Defying conventional wisdom, the study also found that the generation born digital is shunning computer use for most assignments. About two-thirds of teens say they typically do their school writing by hand. And for personal writing outside school, longhand is even more popular — the preferred form for nearly threequarters of teens.
That could be because the majority of writing is short — school assignments are on average a paragraph to a page in length, Lenhart said.
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Scottish Dubliner Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 2:30 PM |
This has been happening in Ireland for a couple of years and not just kids either...
I have a mate who teaches in a Law School, who has marked papers relating to serious legal issues where "students" have let mobile "text" speak creep into their final papers.
Dubz
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DAKOTA Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 2:31 PM |
| This article makes my soul weep. Fail them all! (Must resist urge to insert angry face emoticon in this post.) |
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ricv64 Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 2:34 PM |
| i went through that with my kid , he told me he's breakin rules mazn but i said gotta know the rules to break em |
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Scottish Dubliner Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 2:38 PM |
DAKOTA wrote: This article makes my soul weep. Fail them all! (Must resist urge to insert angry face emoticon in this post.)
That is exactly what my mate does, "F" for fuckin' up on language.
Dubz
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weirdmom Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 3:25 PM |
A friend recently was reviewing a resume and the cover letter actually had "LOL" in it.
Needless to say that person did not get an interview. |
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Nikki Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 3:50 PM |
weirdmom wrote: A friend recently was reviewing a resume and the cover letter actually had "LOL" in it.
Needless to say that person did not get an interview.
:O Oh my God. That's horrible!!!! |
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SamuraiSandy Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 3:59 PM |
| This is so sad! It's not just emoticons either; it's spelling too. The blogging and texting is ruining language! |
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DAKOTA Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 4:05 PM |
Nikki wrote: weirdmom wrote: A friend recently was reviewing a resume and the cover letter actually had "LOL" in it.
Needless to say that person did not get an interview.
:O Oh my God. That's horrible!!!!
I think you mean: OMG! WTF? LOLZ~!!!!111!!
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Nikki Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 4:40 PM |
DAKOTA wrote: Nikki wrote: weirdmom wrote: A friend recently was reviewing a resume and the cover letter actually had "LOL" in it.
Needless to say that person did not get an interview.
:O Oh my God. That's horrible!!!!
I think you mean: OMG! WTF? LOLZ~!!!!111!!
Precisely. |
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weirdmom Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 5:01 PM |
SamuraiSandy wrote: it's spelling too. The blogging and texting is ruining language!
Oh ManZ. I don't know anEonye on this bored whoz spellz thingz wroNg. |
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Scottish Dubliner Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 5:07 PM |
weirdmom wrote: SamuraiSandy wrote: it's spelling too. The blogging and texting is ruining language!
Oh ManZ. I don't know anEonye on this bored whoz spellz thingz wroNg.
Fair point but at least we know better. I think the point is that children are accepting this as correct spelling/grammar. You wanna bastardize the English language, or any other for that matter, then go ahead but at least learn it first, or perhaps others would prefer our children grow up morons who can't spell or write properly.
Dubz
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Nikki Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 5:08 PM |
weirdmom wrote: SamuraiSandy wrote: it's spelling too. The blogging and texting is ruining language!
Oh ManZ. I don't know anEonye on this bored whoz spellz thingz wroNg.
I think the spelling thing has a lot to do with Spell Check as well. It's a great tool, especially in my line of work, but if you rely on it too much, you'll start forgetting how to spell certain words.
I always have trouble with the word "available" for some reason! :P I spell it "avalible" and spell check automatically corrects it for me.
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SamuraiSandy Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 5:12 PM |
weirdmom wrote: SamuraiSandy wrote: it's spelling too. The blogging and texting is ruining language!
Oh ManZ. I don't know anEonye on this bored whoz spellz thingz wroNg.
lol! I really meant in formal writing! I think this MB hardly qualifies as formal writing...
It's just sad that the world of texting has conditioned these kids to take short cuts in spelling in their school work. |
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Nikki Posted Fri 25 Apr, 2008 5:12 PM |
Scottish Dubliner wrote: weirdmom wrote: SamuraiSandy wrote: it's spelling too. The blogging and texting is ruining language!
Oh ManZ. I don't know anEonye on this bored whoz spellz thingz wroNg.
Fair point but at least we know better. The point is that children are accepting this as correct spelling/grammar. You wanna bastardize the English language, or any other for that matter, then go ahead but at least learn it first, or perhaps others would prefer our children grow up morons who can't spell or write properly.
Dubz
It's also very shocking how many adults can't even put together a simple sentence. It's sad, really. |
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