As if you didn’t already suspect, this just in: Texting hurts your grammar.
More specifically, texting in shorthand, textise, text-speak or techspeak as it’s known.
That’s right; ignoring basic grammar, punctuation and syntax principles of the English language on a regular basis does not in fact reinforce said principles.
Some folks turn a blind eye to gross abbreviation, but when we here at Stuff Writers Like see it, we wish we had two blind eyes.
All of our hubbub over techspeak may seem a bit timeworn to the folks over at the Oxford Dictionary, who in 2011 welcomed the abbreviates LOL, TMI, OMG, IMHO and FYI into their tome, but a study highlighted by OnlineCollege.org backs us up. It reveals that frequent use of techspeak has had a significant negative impact on teens ages 13-17, who send more than twice the number of texts of any other age group.
Still not a little worried? An astounding 64% of teens from the study say they use techspeak in classroom writing assignments. Excuse us, but WTF?!
Writers much wiser than we are say you have to know the rules before you can break them. But if you do not practice, you do not learn—you never know.
What’s worse than not knowing basic writing rules? Looking like a buffoon online in front of your friends, colleagues and customers who do.
Show off your stuff
