In David Crystal “2b or Not 2b



Jasmine Brown

Ms. Bolton

English 101

December 7, 2012

Negatives of Text Messaging

In David Crystal’s “2b or Not 2b?”, he discusses and claims that text messaging can improve literacy and reading comprehension; he also feels that text messaging is only a form of abbreviations, which we have been doing for centuries. “David Crystal is a professor at the University of Wales and is known for his work in English language studies and linguistics” (Crystal 335). Looking at Crystal’s educational background it is safe to say that he is a well educated man; because he is so educated, I find it difficult to fathom his idea of how text messaging can actually improve reading comprehension. Without hesitation, I disagree with Crystal’s claim on how he feels text messaging slang is in anyway, beneficial towards reading and comprehension; text messaging makes English teachers jobs more difficult, is a catalyst for poor writing skills, and weakens reading abilities.

Text messaging is the act of typing and sending a brief, electronic message between two or more mobile phones. Once reading the definition of text messaging, I noticed that me being the teen that I am, despise sending wordy and long text messages. Personally, I prefer to compose brief messages; because of this I noticed that I transpose my feelings of brief writing towards formally written essays. Kate Ross, an English teacher from Utah, has the exact same problem with her students on how they also prefer briefly written assignments over long and wordy ones. Ross feels that

text message writing style aims at getting as much said with as few words as possible. This rushed form of writing neglects to consider the audience or appropriate voice. The short hand style is not suitable in formal or classroom writing, and the fact that it is becoming students’ primary form of writing is a serious problem…[Ross] constantly [see’s] the shortened words, terms and contractions typically found in text messaging dialogue used in students’ formal writing assignments. [Ross] also [found] that students overall quality of work has suffered because their attitude toward writing has changed. Much like texting, students want to get everything written as fast as possible. [Students] don’t want to be bothered with the writing process—drafting, revising and editing. (Ross, Par.2, 3)

From reading Ross’s claim, it is safe to say that text messaging makes English teachers jobs more difficult. Not only do teachers have to teach the proper ways of writing, but they have re-teach it constantly because text messaging toxic effects strip away embedded literary knowledge that they need to properly write formal essays.

In order to build strong writing skills, students first have to have a strong literary foundation. This foundation can easily be broken by years of abuse, using improper grammar.

Crystal states that “[students] could not be good at texting if they had not already developed considerable literacy awareness. Before you can write and play with abbreviated forms, you need to have a sense of how the sounds of your language relate to the letters. You need to know that there are such things as alternative spellings. If you are aware that your texting behavior is different, you must have already intuited that there is such a thing as a standard. (Crystal 345)

I partially agree with Crystal on how students could not be good at texting if they did not develop literacy awareness, but the more students’ text the more their literary knowledge weakens (345). Texting is like highly concentrated soda, being watered down. Without the water, or (in this case) without the texting, the stronger the solution (literary skills). With the water, (or with text messaging) the weaker the solution (literary skills). To sum it up, texting is weakening students writing abilities.

Not only does texting weaken students writing skills, it also weakens students reading abilities. Reading and writing go hand in hand; failing to know one aspect negatively affects the other, that is why it is important to thrive in both. Crystal feels that “people think that the written language seen on mobile phone screens is new and alien, but all the popular beliefs about texting are wrong. Its graphic distinctiveness is not a new phenomenon, nor is its use restricted to the young. There is increasing evidence that [text messaging] helps rather than hinders literacy” (Crystal 336- 337). Personally, I cannot see how text messaging improves literary abilities. Like the old saying goes, practice makes perfect; what is being practiced is improper pronunciation and soon, with the help of text messaging young students will have perfected the wrong way of building their reading skills.

Text messaging is here, and it is here to stay. Text messaging makes English teachers jobs more difficult, is a catalyst for poor writing skills, and weakens reading abilities. In my opinion, abbreviating words is not okay, especially when text messaging slang is used in formal writing. It is up to individuals to take on the personal responsibility of making sure that they have the strong foundation of literacy, to make it through life without literary struggle. In conclusion, text messaging slang needs to be stopped as soon as possible before our posterity is completely oblivious to proper writing skills.

Work Cited

Crystal, David. They Say I Say With Readingds (2nd Ed.). “2b or Not 2b?” W..W.Norton and company, 2010. 335-347. Print.

Haralson, Jessica Gold, and Kate Ross. "Does Text Messaging Hurt Student Writing Skills?." American Teacher. (Nov. 2007): 4. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 17 Oct 2012.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download