Is Txt Lingo Killing Ur Students Ability 2 Write?

Is students refusal to use email and focus on texting and other short forms of communication keeping the nations youth from becoming well rounded writers?

Recently this issue has been getting a lot of attention, and after reading this article http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/literacy/articles/instant-messaging/ I felt compelled to give another perspective on the matter. I mean no offense to the writer of the above-mentioned post I simply would like to offer an alternate opinion on the matter.

I have read numerous articles and blogs claiming that students don’t use email to communicate with their professors and are more focused on social media and texting. Professors suspect that this lack of formal communication will lead to students not being able to communicate in the formal manner that society expects of them.

In response to students not using email to interact with their professors and formal acquaintances I can’t help but be a little skeptical of this statements reliability. As a senior in college it is safe to say that email is one of my major forms of communication and is definitely one of my most professional. I email professors and other contacts on a day-to-day basis and am sure that my friends do so with a similar intensity. Yes students engage in multiple forms short communications whether its social media or texting, but saying that students refuse to use email to communicate is an extremely bold statement.

I also feel as though when an issue such as this is brought up by a professor in regards to students responding directly back to their emails it becomes a little bit biased. Again as a current college student I can tell you that my email responses vary accordingly to whom I am responding. I respond differently to professors, friends, potential employers, business partners, family members, etc. So when a professor gets a response that isn’t up to their writing standards it seems a little unfair to assume that every email they send out is written in the same form.

Furthermore students realize that there is a difference when writing a text or Facebook post and writing a cover letter or email to future employer. Students treat texting and social media as a completely different language than cover letters, emails or other forms of professional communication. Thus when people say that students are not able to communicate in a formal matter and write only in a so-called “abbreviated form”, it feels like a stab at my intelligence.

A quote from Jacqui Murray, editor of 6 eBooks on technology in education, says it best with, “To fault text messaging is like blaming the weather for sinking the Titanic. Texting has less to do with their inability to spit out a full sentence than their 1) need for quickness of communication, 2) love for secrecy, and 3) joy of knowing a language adults don’t.”

I’m not going to beat a dead horse here so I will leave you this article http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201203/has-texting-and-email-ruined-students-writing-skills-0.

Tyler Iverson

University of Minnesota
Jour 3279
Blog Assignment