Texting

[vida morkunas]

hi all,

how many teachers/professors on this list come across Texting in their
students' papers? How do you deal with this? I'm concerned about seeing more
and more abbreviations, SMS-type words in my students' essays. The class
that I am most concerned with is my Internet Marketing class, taught in
Continuing Studies.  The essays from my graduate-level courses have
different grammatical issues.

cheers -

Vida.

==========

again, from today's NewsScan:

TEXT MESSAGING LINGO HAS EXPERTS WAGGING THEIR TONGUES
Text messaging, which abbreviates most words to fit onto the small screens
typical of cell phones (examples -- BTW for "by the way" and PXT for "please
explain that"), has spawned a new language, says linguistics experts, who
are split on whether that's a good or bad thing. "So much of American
society has become sloppy or laissez faire about the mechanics of writing,"
says American University professor Naomi Baron, who notes that problems
arise when the casual writing style migrates to other forms of written
communication, such as e-mail. But other linguists say a simpler, more
relaxed vernacular is acceptable for talking or text messaging. "Language
and languages change," says Carolyn Adger, director of the Language in
Society division of the Center for Applied Linguistics. "Innovating with
language isn't dangerous." And text messaging doesn't seem to have subverted
written language skills in Europe, where 10 billion text messages are sent
each month, says a Forrester Research analyst. In fact, as more adults began
using the shortened words in the UK and German, the lingo fell out of favor
with teenagers. (AP 13 Feb
2003)http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030213/D7P5M1D00.html