Meryl's Notes Blog

CNN.com quotes the State Examination Commission, which said, “The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates.”

Apparently, students write short sentences using simple tenses and a limited vocabulary. Maybe my experience doesn’t apply since I was an adult before I started instant messaging or text messaging. But I treat texting/im’ing as a separate language from writing and speaking.

My daughter frequently uses texting and instant messaging, and I’ve yet to see any problems with her writing and vocabulary. She started texting and im’ing around 10 or 11. All I think educators can do is continue with the curriculum and mark any misspelled words as wrong. They also should give lower grades to assignments with limited vocabulary and simple sentences. I hope this isn’t the start of bad writing habits.