Text messaging today is much closer to speaking than it is to writing. This is because people – mainly youth – prefer to write more like the way they speak, rather than writing in standard English. This suggests that when people text each other, they act like they’re talking to them physically, not writing them a letter.
Evidence of this is emoticons. Emoticons are used to express emotions and feelings that you use when you speak to someone. Emoticons show that text messaging is closer to speaking than it is to writing. This also proves that people imagine that the person that they are talking to are right in front of them instead of receiving an email or letter. Examples of emoticons are :), :(. :P, :O, etc. This is also evidence that emoticons were invented to portray the speakers physical expressions that are used in spoken language and not in writing.
There are different words or phrases used in text messaging that try to describe some paralinguistic features that are used in spoken language, for example, “lol” is an abbreviation of laugh out loud which stems from spoken language when a person finds something funny, they laugh. Using these types of words and phrases is more like speaking than writing which proves that text messaging is closer to spoken language than it is to writing.
October 14, 2012 at 2:47 pm
This piece is one of the best so far because it makes an attempt to frame the answer in the broader context of why we text and speak the way we do.
Here’s some feedbacK:
1) Remember to check your sentences for their logic. I think the first sentence was meant to read: “Text messaging is more similar to speaking than it is to writing”.
2) Each time you make a point, support it with an example (when you’re doing language analysis, an example means a quote)
3) think carefully about the judgements you make – are young people writing informally because standards have dropped, or are they doing it because the new forms of communication suggest a more informal, and creative, use of language? (Clearly, I would say the latter, on the whole)
CW
October 14, 2012 at 5:43 pm
That’s much better. You’re now ready to tackle the more complex discussions about how even though features are transferred between speaking and texting, they also change with the shift.
I particularly like your use of the term “stems from”. That’s excellent diction for discussion origin and effect.
Nice work.
Mr Waugh