Since I have been writing this blog, it has set me to thinking about the future of punctuation. Texters use very little or no punctuation at all, dreadful spelling and funny little representations instead of a word or punctuation mark like ! or ?
It's a concern that punctuation may be damaged irreparably or lost altogether.
Below are a few messages I retreived from my 'phone this morning.
I'm quiet a sight Ha ha!
Catch ya's tomoro
... remind me 2 bring over some dvds 2 watch:-O [what does :-O mean anyway?]
Then this morning while taking my morning coffee, I opened The Age to read [1] research has linked children's use of text abbreviations with improved literacy.
The question asked is 'are children losing the capacity to read and write?
The answer they came up with after research is 'probably not.'
It is believed that having fun with texting is creative and 'leads to creativity and intuition in crosswords, poetry and so on'.
Masla and Tarica quote Britain's poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy ( who 'beieves texting is the ideal springboard to poetry writing') and psychologist Dr. Nenagh Kemp who states that 'language is liquid and flourishing.' and 'it makes sense that someone who is good at language, is also good at crosswords, poetry, etc.'
Young people do understand that while they can have fun and be creative with texts and emails,
They also understand that they cannot and they do not use incorrect spelling, grammar or punctuation in formal letter writing or schoolwork.
Remember that the group of students getting educated right now are doing so to the highest level in the history of this civilisation.
Why would they throw away 20 something years of learning and their chance to get that job they want so badly, by writing their resume in textspeak or ignoring punctuation.
So there you are all you grouches and pedants out there. Get over it. Texting is fun. U2 can do it. Spell it wrongly if U want 2. Abbrev. yr words. Do little smiley faces :-) Relax it's just a txt.
The fucha is probly safe in their hands.
[1] Maslen, G. Tarica, G 2011, 'Textese g8 training 4 poets of 2 moro' The Age 12 Sept, p. 16
