Text-Messaging: Curse or Creative Writing for Students?

Let’s face it.  As much as you may like or dislike students texting, it’s here to stay and even being used more and more by adults. According to a survey of 700 students aged 12 to 17 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 85 percent of the responders reported using a form of electronic communication.  Sixty-four percent admitted using a shorthand native to texting.

Can you translate this text-speak?

• IDK
• SMH
• BTW
• POS
• *$

(Answers: I don’t know; shaking my head; by the way; parents over shoulder; Starbucks)

Fourth and fifth grade students text, use Facebook and Twitter, and email as a last resort.  Younger students will be introduced to these methods each year. Teachers and parents are rightfully concerned.

Some teachers are upset by texting because they have seen a decline in their students’ writing abilities.  They do not capitalize, use punctuation, or spell correctly. Young teachers may see this and let it go because they expect it or use it themselves, but others are convinced it causes miscommunication and are out to eradicate or ban it and refer to it as “a dumbing down of culture.” I’m afraid this approach will not work and may encourage an underground messaging system.

A good compromise would be to have students and children prove to you that they can translate their text messages into Standard English. This also works for Second Language Learners and students of world languages. Adapting to various language and communication systems is a highly valued skill and allows students to navigate successfully in different societal venues. The use of Rap, Spanglish, and Ebonics may have a place, but successful students know that place is not on classroom and college papers. They are primed to see a difference between how they communicate socially with their friends and how they write their college essay.  Adapting is a sign of an intelligent, educated student.

Texting has proven itself to be advantageous in several instances. When the plot of a novel or short story has to be succinctly stated and boiled down to one or two sentences, texting works.  There are limits on how much you can say. When you’re expressing the theme of a book or summarizing an essay, brevity is desirable.  Perhaps here is where a text message would work, as long as the student could also show its correct form in Standard English.  Many teachers already communicate this way with students for homework. The teachers may sent out a text message and have students text back the message in Standard English.  It can become second nature to the students and doesn’t have to be something to be feared.  Parents can help their students in similar endeavors. 

Texting also works well in teaching poetry and how to summarize it. Some texting verges on poetry itself, and this is not lost on the students who use it.

Taking short notes on reading assignments is greatly facilitated by texting.  These notes could be shared with classmates or simply sent to oneself to review before a test or quiz.

Radios, talking movies, cars, television, telephones, electric typewriters, and early computers were either once feared when they were introduced and/or not expected to stay around very long.  We have learned from history that this technology march will go on and accelerate as it does.  We can close our eyes to it, or embrace it and help tailor it to the needs of our children and students.  There is much these digital natives can teach us digital tourists about the world into which they were born.

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