the evolution of language or just giving in to the lowest common denominator?

[jhmassi]

......

 

[cloudy]

I think it's a mistake.

Sure, text speak is rampant, however, writing a business proposal or a sales report using it is not going to get them anywhere.

Regardless of whether students text that way or not, they should still be required to know how to write coherently in English. (and to be quite honest, when someone uses it in someplace other than a text message over the phone, it makes me wonder about their level of intelligence)

 

[scheherazade_79]

I think it's disgusting.

 

[CharleyH]

I think it's a mistake.

Sure, text speak is rampant, however, writing a business proposal or a sales report using it is not going to get them anywhere.

Regardless of whether students text that way or not, they should still be required to know how to write coherently in English. (and to be quite honest, when someone uses it in someplace other than a text message over the phone, it makes me wonder about their level of intelligence)

Agree. It's not for use in any venue other than text etc. and neither was or is shorthand allowed on exams and that's been around a while longer. Can you imagine having to mark all of that? What a bunch of incoherant .... (fill in the blank) they'd be creating. LOL

Although ... (thinking) if it was Australia you could always say they were getting back to their roots.

 

[Liar]

Txt spk of 2day is a hybrid between the text message shorthand of cell phones and a random soup of Internet subculture memes.

The first came from a need to shorten text since the SMS messages had a limityed size, and was (and is) a menace to type on ten number keys. It has no place in a modern language where those restrictions doesn't matter anymore.

The other...sure, we can get new slang expressions from it and adopt it into our general vocabulary, in due time. That's one of the ways that language has always evolved.

But...

Does it mean that teachers will have to learn the "new" language? is there a dictionary for it and will all students write txt speech the same way?

The problem with text speech is that it varies. It's not a set standard of slang or memes. And in places where the exactness of the language is important - business, legal stuff, exams too - and it's of the highest importance to aviod misunderstandings, accepting something that has not settled to wide consensus about what means what, is just plain stupid.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I have let work proposals go by because of my policy of simply ignoring any cell phone text messages written in text-speak or, for that matter, messages with spelling or grammar errors sufficiently egregious to make me wonder if I really want to get up in the morning and work for someone like this.

I still haven't starved, and I enjoy my work!

 

[janiexx]

New Zealand students to be allowed to use 'text-speak' in exams

That saddens me more than I can say.

I know I'm probably a grammar freak, but I don't care. What really gets to me is when my ten year old daughter brings her homework home and I itch to correct what her teacher has written...

Now that gets me really angry...

janiexx

 

[rgraham666]

Another person thinking this is a bad idea.

And really, text speak is highly limiting. It is, in my opinion, only used to give very quick messages to people. It's more a cipher than a language.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

Text speak saves time and money for the caller on a mobile phone. It doesn't really have much benefit on a wordprocessor.

 

[CharleyH]

Text speak saves time and money for the caller on a mobile phone. It doesn't really have much benefit on a wordprocessor.

Is it a different speak from IM or chat?

 

[Misty_Morning]

I seem to remember a similar argument concerning ebonics.

 

[keyala]

Text-speak is worse than chat/IM (unless you are speaking with the most annoying people in the world) because EVERYTHING gets abbreviated. Or, if it's not abbreviated, it is dropped. I would honestly rather read a Master's degree disertation in Leet (Elite text, 133+, 'leet, etc.) than a short composition in "texterese."

Misty_Morning said: I seem to remember a similar argument concerning ebonics.

Because it was an equally bad/stupid idea.

 

[erise]

Text-speak is NOT the lowest common denominator, because there are many many people who have trouble reading any of it. And even two text-speaking kids won't understand each other, because they might subscribe to different schools of intepretation of many abbrevations and shorthand words, depending on if they are for instance MySpace or WoW dwellers.

So, teh id sux n w mst 4bid tht crp rite awei.

 

[jhmassi]

......

 

[MagicaPractica]

I simply don't understand how they can do this when the language is, as Liar said, not standardized.

 

[jhmassi]

......

 

[TheEarl]

No words.

I think I'm an oddity in myself though; I've never used txtspk, even in SMS messaging. I think I'm the only person in the world to use semi-colons in text-messages that weren't part of a smilie.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

can't add any really new sentiments to this thread. while i don't use txt speak at all, i do play with language here on the boards and in IM. hell, i think it's painful to use the shift key.

i guess how i feel is that txt speak has its place and it should be kept to cell conversations, ect. however, when i see an occasional txt speak msg on the boards, it does make me wonder about the user's screen size. hrm.

 

[Alessia Brio]

i guess how i feel is that txt speak has its place and it should be kept to cell conversations, ect. however, when i see an occasional txt speak msg on the boards, it does make me wonder about the user's screen size. hrm.

*grin*

When paying for messages by the line or by the character (as in some cell texts), then I've no problem with people taking all available shortcuts. I'm a bit too something to do it myself, though.

In real-time chats, abbreviating for speed is somewhat understandable for longer constructs. I mean, there's a big time differential between typing "I'm laughing out loud!" and "LOL!" It's the shorter ones that tend to be like nails on a chalkboard to me (U, C, 2, 4).

Outside of those scenarios, I just find it lazy.

 

[English Lady]

No words.

I think I'm an oddity in myself though; I've never used txtspk, even in SMS messaging. I think I'm the only person in the world to use semi-colons in text-messages that weren't part of a smilie.

The Earl

Not sure about the semi colons -but I don't do text speak either.


Like liar says, it's not standard -so how will they knoe it'stext speak and not just a typo?

 

[blackrose_216]

Even when I was getting charged by the character for text messages, I still wrote them out in full. Don't be a buffoon; find a way to say it that uses smaller words or less of them!

 

[SamK]

WTF S everyones prob hre there's Ø rong W txt msgN its fstr thN typin ot evry wrd

 

[jhmassi]

......

 

[kendo1]

Hey sam bwa bu bu bu fu and just so that it's all clear haw gee mo so. Yea thats what it's like for me to read your crap please stop now...no really STOP

Seconded.
She's gone too far.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

Even when I was getting charged by the character for text messages, I still wrote them out in full. Don't be a buffoon; find a way to say it that uses smaller words or less of them!

I use the predictive text feature, but that's becuase I'm a spazz at the keys