Omg! Lol, Thatz Cray! 0.o By Camille

A recent survey was done concerning the topic of text language or informal writing. Text language is shorthand usually used by teenagers in text messages (ex: omg, lol, ttyl). Sixty four percent of the 700 students said that, sometimes, their texting language slips into their formally written school assignments. Writing in text language shouldn’t be accepted by teachers as a piece of formal school work.

             
Some people say that this new way of writing could change the way we write normally. First of all, informal writing is immature and should not be thought of as a new way of language. When people see a piece of informal writing, it looks sloppy and it seems like it took you five minutes on something you might have worked hard on. If you’ve ever read something in text language, you’ve seen that capitalization and punctuation are often missing, which is important for an impressive piece of writing.

            
 With that said, text language is not a good thing to be familiar with in your writing. For example, in school it might seem fine to write informally, but when you get older, you’re going to look unprofessional to future employers. If you write a resume or an essay for college in text language, they’re going to see you as immature and not experienced. When you write informally you tend to leave out big words that make you sound smart. If you don’t look smart, why would the school or an employer want you? 

If you have even tried to read texting shorthand you’ve noticed that, finally, informal writing is hard to understand. When people write in text language, they make most of it up as they go along. There is no universal book on “how to talk in text language”, so everybody’s take on the words aren’t going to be the same. The words are usually spelled exactly how they sound, but when you see the word, the letters don’t make the same sound in your head as when you look at it. Plus, different people sound out words differently than others.  

There are many reasons to stop informal writing. It’s immature, hard to understand and unprofessional. Writing in text language should not sneak into formal things for school.  

Skeleton Crew, a review by Lianna

Book Title : Skeleton Crew
Format: Hardcover
Author: Stephen King
Length/number of pages: 566
Price : 8.99

"In this brilliant collection of stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine-A supermarket becomes the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction-a trip to the attic becomes a journey to hell-a woman driver finds a scary shortcut to paradise-an idyllic lake harbors a bottomless evil-and a desert island is the scene of the most terrifying struggle for survival ever waged." 

~ Summary from Barnes And Noble website

This book is extremely well written and clever. King is at his best with a great mixture of humor and horror. The characters feel like real people even though they are only in short stories,and they are generally well-rounded. The stories are also truly  horrifying at some points and will have you on the edge of your chair with suspense. 
    
The only bad points are that a few of the characters, despite being well-written are not very likeable. Because of this some of them are not relatable. Also some stories are not as good as others, but overall most of them are excellent.

Rating (out of five chocolate bars) 4.5 I would give this a five but some of the stories are not as good as others.

Appropriateness: Death. This book is not only pee your pants scary, it is full of swearing and other content I would only recommend this book to people who are comfortable with this kind of content. 

Cover Thoughts: I think the cover was kind of boring. All it is is a bunch of skulls.

Tatianna M.'s Book Review of Last Act

Title: Last Act
Author: Christopher Pike
Pages: 226
 
Last Act is about a teenage girl named Melanie. She had to move to a new town because of her parents' divorce. At her new school, she didn't have any friends until she helped Susan cheat on a test. Susan convinced her to try out for the school play. But on opening night, a disaster strikes the stage!
 
One of Last Act's strengths is that it's very suspenseful and keeps you interested until the end. It is short enough not to get bored with but long enough so it doesn't take five minutes to read. Last Act also had a well thought out and somewhat complicated plot and a surprise ending.
 
Some weaknesses of Last Act are that it doesn't take very long to read. Also, the character that everyone becomes fond of is negatively viewed in the twist ending. But, on the other hand, that also makes the last chapter of this book really good.  Another weakness is the cover design. Last Act has a few different cover designs but none are really amazing. They give away what the entire book is about and leave no mystery to be uncovered.
 
I liked Last Act and I rate this book 4 out of 5 chocolate bars. This book is rated vampire because it's about a murder and an investigation.