Is "Text Messaging" causing sloppy spelling?

As I anguish over my students' papers, I find myself making the same grammatical corrections over and over again. It makes me wonder how some graduate students can make it to their third year of graduate school with such a limited knowledge of proper English grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. (In all fairness to my class, not all of my students are guilty; but a few are.)

Then I realized that perhaps these students might be products of "Text Messaging" and "Instant Messaging" versions of improper spelling.

Recently, The Plain English Campaign posted an interesting article on this topic. You can read the entire article here yourself.

Allowing 'text speak' in exams does our students no good

If exam boards accept text speak in exam papers they cannot be sure that young people have the communication skills they will need in later years. So, however tolerant and well meaning examiners are being by allowing text speak, they are failing students.

I am against anything that suggests to students that is OK to use text speak in their exam papers. Teachers, examiners and parents should all be giving youngsters the opposite message - communicate clearly, spell correctly, and punctuate properly. The ones who can do all that are more likely to get on in life.

Earlier this year, we had a bit of fun highlighting the use of text speak in valentine cards. We translated some of the better known love messages into text. Can you tell what the following means?

Shal. i compR thee 2 a sumRz da?

I'll give you a clue. Its one of the finest lines Shakespeare wrote. 'Shall I compare thee to a summers day', from one of his sonnets.

Now that is a ridiculous example, but I bet some that have been given in exam papers are even more ridiculous. The English language is too important for examiners or teachers to suggest that correct spellings are not necessary. Please, please encourage clear communication in all situations. Leave text speak to text messages. Our youngsters deserve better.

Although the Plain English article expresses a reason for sloppy spelling, it does nothing to calm my anxiety: proper writing may be slowly vanishing. I just keep plugging away, expecting my students to create a well-written final product.

Am I a dinosaur? Or just relentlessly picky, picky, picky ...

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/blog.htm