ritin n txt vs The Queen's English

DARKIZE

Apologies because I'm about to go off on one here.

At the risk of sounding like a Daily Mail-reading old fart.......is it just my perception or have basic literacy skills dropped badly among the population ? And I guess I'm really pointing the finger at the under 30s here.

Reading through some of the posts on Boards is like trying to break a code; terrible spelling, no punctuation, and for some reason an inability to add the "g" when expressing action (or should that be expressin action ?)

I'm sure some of it is just down to laziness and the habits of phone-texting, but the worry is that there are whole swathes of otherwise well-educated people out there with poor written communication, and it probably doesn't do us any favours as a nation if that perception gets out.

I'd be really interested to hear the opinions and experiences of some teachers on this topic (crosses fingers and double-checks for grammatical errors).

Labhaoise

I am definitely with you on this one. I think texting has started this lazy fad, and more recently bebo. I have seen some bebo profiles- kids under 18 are the worst, -I have friends with teenage siblings and I find it very difficult to even understand the basic theme! I think it's really terrible and I feel very sorry for English teachers they must have their work cut out for them. I can only imagine the state of junior cert and probably leaving cert spelling and grammar!!!

ytareh

You want to be REALLY scared?!Ive even seen posters(teachers allegedly) on this forum and educationposts.ie using txt spk....AAAaaaarrrgghhhh!

ytareh

On reflection it's just occured to me that George Orwell's 1984 really has rung true with this accursed 'double speak'...We certainly have Big Brother (!) , constant surveillance , wars without end etc etc

Sleipnir

It really is getting worse.

I'm in I.T. and some emails that get blocked are really impossible to read. These people are adults too. Professionals. I really sometimes want to reply saying that the email was blocked due to terrible spelling, grammer and text-talk.

Toto Wolfcastle

Well I'm 23 (so fall into the under-30 category!) and I have never used text speak.

I'm an English teacher and although my senior students don't use text speak when writing, my second years are awful. They honestly think that it's acceptable to use text speak when writing a letter. I constantly have to write on their copies, 'This is not a text message.'

I was in second year when mobile phones became very popular, although I didn't get one until I was in TY. There certainly wasn't a problem with text speak back then. It's a bit depressing to be honest.

coffee_cake

DARKIZE wrote: »

Reading through some of the posts on Boards is like trying to break a code; terrible spelling, no punctuation, and for some reason an inability to add the "g" when expressing action (or should that be expressin action ?)

What I find more alarming is that not only do they drop the "g" in laziness, they now genuinely cannot seem to tell the difference between the action and a different word. Most common examples would be been/being and seen/seeing. "I was seen this girl", "seen as how I...", "been a man I wouldn't know" etc etc. Combined with the now-widespread use of "should of/would of/ had of/could of", well, the problem becomes worse than sheer laziness.