No Respect! an essay by Jacqi

(see other In the Middle bloggers' views on this topic!)

No Respect

           

“The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.”- George Bernard Shaw.

The English language is full of beautiful words. They practically take all of your concentration to say because they have that much emotion.

Unfortunately, most words like that don’t exist in the average American’s vocabulary anymore. Suddenly, shorthand took over and there were no more long and luscious words, just short, misspelled words that can be interpreted any way instead of the specific and detailed beauty of Shakespeare’s words. Generation by generation, we’re losing our language to words that completely rewrite the rules of grammar. To teach it in schools is absurd. Formal writing is the best, and only, way to write.

           

With all our new technology, it’s no wonder that shorthand became a main part of teen culture. Apple practically comes out with a new product every month, which is the same as the last, except it has one new and advanced feature. Then, teens beg their parents to buy it for them, and for what? To sit around all day, playing games, going on social networking sites, and texting, plus doing all of those things while lying on a couch for multiple hours. They’re so lazy; they don’t even have the energy to type a whole word out. It doesn’t help that their phones’ keyboards are so small. It makes it easier for them to shorten words. But while they think they’re being productive, with every word they misspell, they’re ingraining that misspelled word into their brains and changing the English language as we know it.

           

Language, as we know it, is still completely different from what it once was. Long ago, people spoke with lots of emotion and detail. They spoke almost melodically and in a way that seemed specific to that situation, but could really mean anything. Nowadays, teens say “Was up?” Not even “How was your day?” Just two words, was and up. Where’s the beauty in that? By shortening every thing, the words lose meaning and become less important, thus deteriorating the English language.

           

Letting our children speak like that is one thing, but teaching that to them is preposterous. In the article, they say that as teens add new words to the English language, they remove others. That throws millions of years of work and the making of words straight into the garbage.

           

Shorthand, besides emoticons, is hard to translate into other languages because of the shortened words and loss of vowels. Learning it is going to make learning a different language that much more complicated and the English language is complicated enough. There are so many punctuation, grammar, and spelling rules that most people can barely keep track. The article claims, “Half of the teens surveyed said they sometimes fail to use capital letters or proper punctuation in assignments.” Teaching shorthand in schools will just promote bad grammar and blur the lines between English and shorthand. The formal way of writing will be ruined.

           

Why would you want to ruin the English language? We’ve built it up and it still has so much potential. Teaching shorthand in schools will make teens think that it’s okay to ignore that. Shorthand disrespects the English language and teaching it makes Shaw right.

I < 3 Texting! an essay by Flannery

(for the first essay on this topic, check out Camille's view here!)

Ttyl. Lol. Brb. Idk. Rofl. Gtg. These expressions are commonly used, but what about in formal writing? Informal text language should be allowed in formal writing in schools.

Experts warn that it could "change the English language" (Teen Writing Makes Teachers :-() but the English language is always changing. Our current form of English is very different from Middle English, which was spoken not so very long ago. Our language also changes when slang words are added and obsolete words are removed.

But opponents say that text lingo could make proper capitalization and grammar obsolete. "Half of the teens surveyed said they sometimes fail to use capital letters or proper punctuation in assignments" (Teen Writing Makes Teachers :-(). Blaming texting for a a lack of capitalization or punctuation is an extrapolation. Students may be lacking these qualities in their writing because of a deficit of knowledge or just plain laziness, not texting. If texting lingo is used in formal writing assignments, then the improper writing should be specifically addressed by the teachers. The differences between formal and informal should be taught throughout school, just like traditional grammar.

Our language is how we express ourselves and our traditional grammar and rules have changed as we have new outlets to express ourselves. As we approach an increasingly digital age of communication, it makes sense that so does our language. Language is a reflection of the culture and in our culture phones are a status symbol and bigger, better phone plans are constantly being marketed toward us, then are language should reflect that culture. Using texting lingo in a formal writing in schools would make writing more relevant and more appealing to the children who use texting as their dominant form of education.

Texting is now a permanent part of our culture and society. To reflect that change, texting lingo should be allowed in formal writing in schools.

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.