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The Texting Debate:
Part Two

On the other side of the texting debate, there are educators who regard the same "Internet English" not only as an example of how language is constantly developing and changing, but also as a type of literacy in and of itself, which can be capitalized on to engage students in more traditional learning. Educators who argue this point believe that the more students write (no matter what format it is written in), the better they will get at writing.

The educators that view texting as a more positive trend, revel in how comfortable today's students are with writing, and how much easier it is for them to get words on a page, computer screen, or cell phone. An article in The Washington Post researched the notion behind educators' positive approach to text messaging. Barbara Bass, director of the Maryland Writing Project, reported:

For a while, people were not writing anything. Now, people are actually seeing words on paper. And that's good. In fact, text messaging and e-mail are creating a new generation of adolescent writers, accustomed to translating their every thought and feeling into words. They write more than any generation has since the days when telephone calls were rare and the mailman rounded more than once a day.
(Helderman, 2003)

Although there are many educators that share this positive opinion of text messaging and student writing, I researched a leading contributor and supporter of this side of the debate.

Quantity Leads to Quality:
Al Filreis --University of Pennsylvania

Al Filreis, an English professor at University of Penn, argues for the positivity of text messaging juxtaposed with academic writing. He claims says he has seen the quality of student writing improve, first in the mid-1990s with the growing popularity of e-mail and again as an increasing number of cell phones have included keyboards.

As the director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at Penn, Filreis works with high school writers as well as undergraduate students on a consistent basis. In an interview with a reporter from The Christian Science Monitor, Filreis supported his claim in the following statement:

In writing, quantity tends to lead to quality, and we're doing quantity right now. Through texting and other instant communication, my students have learned hard-to-teach lessons about audience, succinctness and syntax. My students are better writers than they were 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Not only are students writing more, but they are also revising and editing as well...Too many critics dismiss this form of communication because they assume kids jot off anything that pops into their heads. While sometimes that is true, I've witnessed students read over messages before sending them to a friend, editing to clear up mistakes or imprecision... Students are practicing wording and rewording, understanding the linguistic implications better than most average non-texting adult. (McCarroll, 2005)

This claim sparked something inside of me while researching. I agree with Filreis among the other educators that argue on this side of the debate. His claim that, "students have learned hard-to-teach lessons about audience, succinctness, and syntax" resonated with me.

Text-Messaging: A Lesson in Linguistics

"What will this generation learn and what will the lose in the relentless stream of sentence fragments, abbreviations, and emoticons? - Pam Zingser, Washington Post

After researching both sides of the texting spectrum, I formulated my own opinions on the positive impact text messaging has had on student writing. Audience, succinctness, and syntax have all been activated and practiced in the composition of text messaging. Let's take a more in-depth look at how...

Audience [n] - a regular public that manifests interest, support, enthusiasm, or the like.

Text messaging has influenced and benefited a student's sense of "audience." Although, at times, the lines may be hazy between formal and informal writing, texting has allowed students to practice differentiation among several audiences. For example, a text message sent to a student's parent about an incident at a party last night would be drastically different than a text message sent to a student's friend on campus. Text messaging helps students derive an understanding social contexts as well as semantics, classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.

Succinctness [n] - the ability to express few words in a concise and terse manner

Reflecting all the way back to high school composition, teachers have always emphasized "getting to the main point" when writing. They penalize students for "rambling" in their papers, rather than emphasizing the main point. Educators who claim text messaging deters students from writing formally cannot deny the succinctness that formulates in academic writing as a result of habitual text messaging. When college students practice the succinctness of fitting 500 characters on a cell phone screen, they have the ability to break down their thoughts and chunk main ideas and supporting points. This chunking allows students to redirect their succinctness toward academic writing.

Syntax [n] - the study of rules and patterns for the formation of grammatical sentences and phrases from words.

I know that the notion of "syntax" would probably suit Baron's argument better than Filreis', but I think text messaging improves and practices the usage of syntax. Sentence structure is a basic grammatical element that is taught from an early elementary level. To agree with Filreis on his theory that quantity produces quality, I think syntax follows the same pattern. Texting allows for practice with syntax in countless ways. Texters have to choose their phrases wisely and quickly. Along with succinctness, a text message has its own form of "language," and texters must study and follow the rules and patterns when forming sentences and phrases in a message. Although the syntax of text messaging probably doesn't equate to the syntax in academic composition, it is still present and necessary to understand and formulate grammatical sentences and phrases; so it's a valid means of practice.

Concluding Thoughts

To accept the notion that text messaging hasn't had an impact or influence on this generation is naive. From the invention of mobile communication to the innovation of the cell phone, text messaging has been a vital tool in composition. Although the cliché, "practice makes perfect," is probably not ideal in this case, the more we compose text messages, the more practice with writing we will have. Whether or not texting makes us "better writers" is not determined by this research alone, but there is something worth saying about the state of student writing that Filreis reported earlier. His claim that he has better writers now than he did 10, 20, or 25 years ago says something insightful and powerful about the advancement in technology and composition of cyberspace....which is an argument and viewpoint worth considering.