Illustration of a hand sending out so many texts that the texts are breaking through the phone

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is txting ruining ur writing?

A lot of abbreviated words, no capital letters, missing punctuation. Everyone with a smartphone knows that relaxed grammar and shortened spellings are common in text messages. But would you write the same way in a school essay?

Many parents and teachers worry that too much texting might cause kids to develop bad writing habits. Some people think using incorrect spelling and grammar in texts is fine for adults, but not for kids, who are still learning how to write well.

Other people argue that kids realize texting has different rules than the writing they do for school. Plus, a study from the Netherlands suggests there’s nothing to worry about. Researchers found that texting regularly doesn’t hurt kids’ writing. In fact, the more shortcuts kids used in texts, the better they performed on grammar tests.

Here’s what two of our readers think.

When sending texts, kids use a lot of shortcuts that prevent them from learning to be skilled writers. We use abbreviations like NP for “no problem” instead of writing out the words properly. Smartphones can autocorrect spelling, which takes away the need to memorize how to spell important words.

Also, students can send messages by recording their voice. This means they aren’t practicing writing at all. Their phones are doing all the work!

Kids know that texting is a relaxed way of writing that we shouldn’t use in school—unless we want a bad grade! We know it’s not appropriate to use short responses and abbreviated words when writing essays and answering questions on tests. I text all the time and still get good grades in my English language arts class.

Plus, texting can actually improve kids’ writing. The autocorrect tool on phones shows the correct spellings of words, so we know better in the future.

What does your class think?

Is texting ruining your writing?

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Skills Sheets (1)
Text-to-Speech