'Net chat' language leaves teachers lost for words

nicholmere · #1 11-14-2002, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Mark Federman, chief strategist of the McLuhan management studies unit of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, says the confusion for students arises because they're using the same interface — a keyboard — to engage in both casual conversations and formal writing assignments.

"They don't recognize that there's a difference between oral language and written language," says Federman.

Kids want to click and run, not sit reading

nicholmere · #2 11-14-2002, 08:00 PM

I think my schooling days were so long ago that on-line chatting has not influenced my business writing style as strongly as it has the students in the news article. I have not taken a university course in over two years, but even then I did not notice much "chat speak" in my fellow (younger) students. I wonder though what the typical essay will look like when my children reach university.

**jgibson2**[$] · #3 11-14-2002, 08:44 PM

My 19yo has occasionally caught himself dropping into "net chat" usage while writing papers for college. He's always managed to edit it out, though.

**amykhar** · #4 11-14-2002, 08:47 PM

I only struggle with it when writing professional emails. It's hard work not to throw in smilies and grins.

Amy

hypotenuse · #5 11-14-2002, 08:53 PM

Hey!

They left out the duck's OFCOL!

Hrmph.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #6 11-14-2002, 08:59 PM

I've seen it slip into my business emails (to people who I know well), into my diary entries (especially LOL, where I used to say "hahaha"), and occasionally hand-written notes to staff. Never, ever in schoolwork where I tend to be overly-formal and make extensive use of passive voice (which sounds more formal to me).

nicholmere · #7 11-15-2002, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mjfrombuffalo

... Never, ever in schoolwork where I tend to be overly-formal and make extensive use of passive voice (which sounds more formal to me).

When I used the passive voice in my essays my teachers would almost always draw red circles around the sentences and tell me to use the active voice. I saw a lot of red

magenta321 · #8 11-15-2002, 08:23 AM

It's funny. I got an A on every single high school English class I took. I never saw any red. I also never heard of the active or passive voice. Grrr...

Then I got to college. Had a full scholarship but had to take "honors" classes. First semester freshman year is the weeding out period. Our first classes were our toughest. I saw so much red and started getting Cs for the first time in my life in an English class.

I am anal when I write formal papers now, but, I almost never see any red. Of course, having a good grammar checker helps, because, my grammar is still not wonderful. (The Word grammar checker is not a wonderful one... there are much better ones on the market).