An essay titled "does Texting Affect Writing?" was published by Michaela Cullington while she studied to gain her masters degree in speech and language pathology at Marywood University. In her essay she claims that texting and texting language neither benefits or harms a students academic writing. Michaela Cullington asserts that a conspiracy has been going around concerning how texting can limit a students writing ability in ways such as not being able to convey emotion in writing, forgetting how to write a formal English paper and use correct punctuation, and most of all a decline in spelling.
Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at American University, believes that texting is harming students writing. She states, “So much of American society has become sloppy and laissez faire about the mechanics of writing” (131). The author used this quote to drawl in the teachers who believe texting is harming students writing. Cullington goal is to make them continue reading and learn how she believes texting is actually beneficial. By putting the opposing view point of texting affecting writing in the beginning, is confusing to the target audience.
In the article “:-) Textings Ok 4 Kids,” Nenagh Kemp explained that people often think textisms and literary skills can show a negative effect but truly it doesn’t. Nenagh Kemp performed an examination of text messages and their grammatical errors from a primary school, high school, and a university for a year. The most common violations were omission of capitalization and punctuation, omission of words, and misusing punctuation. But, in general there was nothing relating poor grammar skills with textisms.
Communicating with others via texting is as common as eating breakfast in the morning. It has become almost second nature for many to just text friends, family etc. This convenient form of communication created in the 1990’s and popularized in the 2000’s has helped deliver messages and have conversations with almost anyone in the world. However, some are starting to believe its overwhelming popularity is starting to affect younger generation’s writing; specifically formal writing. Michaela Cullington in Does Texting Affect Writing?
Today, texting has become the most widely used communication technique for teenagers and young adults. It is written in completely informal language and it has no literature value in it. Although the critics believe texting is destroying literature value, McWhorter has another opinion in mind. McWhorter thinks that texting is another form of language that is developed by teenagers. It is the creation of a brand new language evolving from the old literature.
She believes that texting is convenient, easier than a face to face conversation and quicker than a phone call. I agree with her. After doing her research she found that some teachers were getting assignments handed in by students with abbreviations. Texting is not only convenient but like I said it has its own language or abbreviations. Some teachers believe that because this generation spends more time texting it shows in their formal writing assignments.
Introduction Love it or hate it, texting is constant facet of today’s society. Texting is usually consider the bane of all English teachers out there. Everywhere, English teachers complain that texting lower’s the child’s English skills, that cheating is running amuck, and texting is causing grammar and spelling errors every turn. Throughout “TXTing: h8 or luv it,” Courtney Anttila targets the common English teacher’s concern on texting, and providing a positive spin to texting.
Ever since its creation,texting is a very controversial topic. One of the main claims people have against texting is that “it ruins not only the brains of children using it but it ruins are language”. In “I h8 txt msgs” John Humphry uses his experience with texting to utter the claim that texting is ruining the english language. He states on line 53-57 that the “march of texters” are “doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago.
Have you ever surfed a three story wave? Against all odds, Jay Moriarty was training to do just that. In preparation for this enormous task, Jay would have to train physically, mentally, and even spiritually. Should one of these goals were left unfulfilled, he would be ultimately unsuccessful in quest to surf one of the largest waves ever recorded.
In her essay "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington presents her argument that texting does not impact formal writing written by students. She discusses the concerns presented by many people about how texting language can transfer into writing, but through the use of personal experiences and credible sources she discusses how this is not true. Her use of multiple different studies and situations help boost her argument and allow the reader to truly see how students actually do formal writing. She presents a strong argument as to why those who believe students don't have the control and knowledge to write formally, instead of with text speak, are wrong.
This, along with her own anecdotal experience, lead her to the conclusion that texting is not something to be afraid of by teachers because it does not harm students' writing abilities. The abbreviations have the purpose of speeding up the process of typing, and as long as expecatations about writing assignments are clear there would be no
In her essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” Michaela Cullington addresses the issue of text messaging possibly causing poor communication skills and the use of textspeak, abbreviations used during text messaging such as “LOL” and “g2g,” in students’ formal writing. Cullington argues that “texting actually has a minimal effect on student writing” (pg. 367). She addresses the opposition directly, even citing credible sources. However, she also cites credible sources with better information to support her point, and even conducts an experiment of her own.
In the article, Ream states because of texting students are unable to spell right because when they are texting they abbreviate words and are not using right punctuation. Also they’re not skilled to express their feelings in their formal writing. Therefore some teachers believe so as well and are saying students have become sloppy and lazy. So Michaela Cullington interviewed two of her high teachers to get their point of view on if texting if affecting students writing. Both teachers had said they have been seeing their students’ using abbreviations in their formal
Cullington did further reasearch with seven hgihschoolers and she found out that “My research suggests that texting actually has a minimal effect on student writing. It showed that students do not believe textspeak is appropriate in formal writing assignments. They recognize the difference between texting friends and writing formally and know what is appropriate in each situation. ” Texting could just be another excuse on why writing skills are lowering or it could be a real reason that should be
Some individuals have to become adapted to new things and the way society has changed. In “Will Text-Messaging Destroy The English Language” Dallas Spires said that texting is a new code used to communicate ideas in English accurately and with ease and efficiency through a specific medium and for an almost exclusive audience. The level to which this code is used seems to depend on the age of the user. Teens seem to be the most proficient at texting, while users in their 20’s and 30’s seem to use it less and less. While I agree that traditional forms of written and spoken English need to be preserved, I also believe that we all need to understand what is appropriate in different situations.
