The increasing use of text messaging has led to an entirely new language of abbreviations, according to a recent Chicago Sun-Times article. However, it is starting to become a problem when it crosses over into student’s academic work.

Amy Hicks, English studies doctoral candidate, has not seen much of the integration, but is interested to look into why it happens.

“Instead of being shocked or horrified, I was interested in why this happened. We shorten words all of the time, so why isn’t it okay in certain situations? Perhaps the reason I haven’t seen it in the classes I’ve taught is because I’ve tried to place significant emphasis on making specific communicative choices and being attuned to what different writing situations require us to do and what language is appropriate in these situations,” Hicks said.

Hicks feels that students can not separate text from formal lingo because students are so accustomed to communicating through text messages and they write in this genre moreso than in any other.

“Some of my students told me that they send over 100 text messages a day. When you think about how much writing that is, it can be mind-boggling. It makes sense that this lingo could bleed into other forms of communications where formal language is required,” Hicks said.

Hicks believes students who use text lingo in academic genres of writing are not unintelligent or even bad communicators.

“I think it just means that they are not gauging the writing situation set before them very well. Or maybe they’re not paying attention to audience expectations,” Hicks said.

Hicks also points out the long-term effects that could stem from using this language in professional assignments.

“I mean, this type of language just isn’t a conventional feature of many types of writing, especially writing in academic settings or the professional world,” Hicks said.

Hicks feels that all students know grammatical rules or can look up the rules easily, so they just need to recognize the situations in which breaking these rules is appropriate or inappropriate, but these mistakes aren’t always bad.

“We shorten words all the time to make language work for our needs. And I do think that the conventions of academic writing change to meet our needs. So, who’s to say that texting lingo won’t be accepted in the future?” Hicks stated.  

However, Jodi Hallsten, lecturer in the school of communication, sees this lingo pop up in other places as well.

“Texting lingo comes up in e-mails students send me, but only very rarely. I find it offensive just because it egregiously violates standard grammar conventions that I believe people should be considerate of in emails,” Hallsten said.