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Home > Blogs > Middletown School News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > April > 28 > Entry
Text speak for term papers?
Text speak for term papers?
az d Middletown borD of Education votes 2nt 2 hire a nu fAc 4 d Middie sidelines, a familiar fAc frm thOs sAm sidelines plans 2 10dR Hs resignation.
d Middletown borD of Education wiL vote 2nt April 28, 2 hire Jason Krause, curNtlE hed coach @ Monroe hI skul, 2 lEd d Middies az hed footy coach NXT yr.
That’s the first two paragraphs of my story in today’s Journal on tonight’s Middletown Board of Education meeting in text speak, according to transl8it.com. Here’s what it really looked like:
As the Middletown Board of Education votes tonight to hire a new face for the Middie sidelines, a familiar face from those same sidelines plans to tender his resignation.
The Middletown Board of Education will vote tonight, April 28, to hire Jason Krause, currently head coach at Monroe High School, to lead the Middies as head football coach next year.
According to a recent New York Times story, some students are slipping into text mode in their schoolwork.
Almost two-thirds of the students surveyed said they have used tech slang in their school assignments, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the College Board’s National Commission on Writing.
One of the educators interviewed in the article says text speak may be the wave of the future — perhaps in many aspects of our lives.
Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project suggests that as the English language progresses, it may become acceptable to use grammar and spelling techniques once found only in cyberspace in more formal communications.
If this is already happening in schools, it could, as this generation grows up and moves into the workforce, become common practice in business and other areas of life too.
Is it becoming more acceptable for students to use informal text speak in school assignments? What about in today’s workforce? Should we let the English language take its own course or should we work to preserve the language as it is today?
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Comments
By Katherine
May 7, 2008 4:16 PM | Link to this
Though languages do transform over time, it is important that students learn to write and speak standard English. Though common spellings and words may eventually transform in to those found online, it is important that students are able to convey their ideas “normally.” Even if text speak allows the individual to express knowledge, it is not, as of yet, professionally or academically acceptable. Until it is, students must understand standard English for success. Text speak is probably already seen as a dialect of sorts. Treating it as such, individuals of different dialects must be able to step outside of what they use at home when entering the work force in order to be taken seriously, especially when the dialect is radically different from what is considered standard.