Firstly, I would like to state that I do not agree with the statement "textspeak is eroding hard- learned skills in such basic areas as spelling and grammar". Why? Because studies have shown that 'txtspk' in fact is expanding children's dictionaries as it exposes them to a variety of forms of the English language, therefore they are able to witnesses the different ways English can be used and this is in fact beneficial to them. In total, over 3 billion have mobile phones (that's almost half of the Earth's population!)- so how can we expect everyone to get rid of their phones, to 'protect' themselves from txtspk as it 'erodes' their language skills- we can't, because this is false. People in general tend to look up to people who are higher than them in the social hierarchy (e.g. royalty), therefore if you try to tell someone that only 'uneducated' people use txtspk, they will disagree with you. But why? Because Queen Victoria did txt spking and that will definitely be a point of argument that they may use.
I believe that this article uses a large amount of hyperbole, because I am quite sure that children are NOT 'in danger of growing up with limited vocabularies', this is not life-threatening.
Texting is something that is essential is people's lives, it is there as a form of communication and for passing information to others and I know that many of us like to cut down on things that could be time-consuming, so that's why txtspk was created- it's not there to determine how educated we are.
Yes, there are people out there who do not form a line between the way they write in class and the way they text, but these people can not be generalised to all of us. Also, txtspk is not a whole new language, it is simple the removal of vowels and unnecessary letters from ENGLISH words.
If texting is THAT bad, then why was it created in the first place?
Yours Truly,
Reem Abusin
Street 274
Dubai
12/10
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587824/Twtr-Its-not-majorly-...her-condemns-text-speak-eroding-schoolchildrens-language-skills.html
Hi Reem! I really enjoyed reading your opinion on the phenomenon of 'Text Speak.' You have effectually included statistical evidence to support your argument which indicates your understanding of the retort you have made. Furthermore, I particularly like how you subtly mock the claims made in the article by referring to them as "hyperboles" as this gives your letter a little "sassy" element whilst still communicating your point. Well done and keep up the good work!
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