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Text message shortcuts trip up students

By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher | Newsday Staff Writer

There are three letters that make Jeff Littwin cringe when he grades papers.

Kids "will make a personalized comment and will put 'LOL' in an essay," said Littwin, an English teacher.

The abbreviation for "laughing out loud" is commonly attached to funny quips when today's generation of youth communicates through text messages sent via cell phone and instant messages over the Internet.

But Littwin and other educators say the rapid and casual writing is seeping into students' academic expression.

"Everything is shorthand," Littwin said. "No capitalization. The spelling is just awful. There are no commas, no periods."

Of every 20 or so essays teacher Phillip Cicione grades, he said about six or seven contain errors such as simply using the letter "U" instead of "you," or a lowercase "i" for the pronoun "I."

Teacher Jennifer Motl has seen assignments with the abbreviation "BFFN," short for "best friend for now," the numeral "2" for "to" or simply "B" for "be."

Cicione said he first noticed these errors slipping into written assignments about six years ago. "And then I would look at an essay and would see a lot of these abbreviations."

Kalli Braunstein, 15, a sophomore, said she sometimes can't help inserting electronic slang into class work.

"I know sometimes I accidentally abbreviate words in an essay," the teen said. "I just don't think about it."

The most common flub, she said, is writing "cuz" instead of "because." She also tends to replace "s" with "z" simply because that's the texting trend.

Braunstein, who admits to daily instant messaging with at least 45 people at a time, said her teacher gets annoyed when texting lingo creeps into schoolwork. "She takes off points," Braunstein said. "She'll write, 'Can we use real words?'"

Kimmy Lopes, 14, a freshman, sent 3,700 text messages via her BlackBerry in May. She said she rarely uses abbreviations or slang in her text and instant messages. "I don't want to get in the habit," she said. "My friends think I'm weird because I write out the whole thing."

Educators see the value of modern forms of electronic communication, even though they stress the importance of separating formal writing from text notes sent to friends.

"By the same token, sometimes when you give them an opportunity to express themselves in the conventions that they are more comfortable with, you can find very interesting responses," Cicione said. Occasionally, he'll assign tasks such as creating a Facebook page for "Catcher in the Rye" protagonist Holden Caulfield.

Theresa McGinnis, assistant professor of literacy studies at Hofstra University, said teachers need to recognize how technology is changing communication. Mistakes stemming from text message language should be used as opportunities "to talk about audience and purpose," she said. "Most teens will say they know there's a difference."

For Littwin, text messages highlight a generation gap. His students send text messages so frequently that on one day he took away seven devices. "They're so proficient, they're doing it under the desk without even having to look at the keyboard," he said. "I'm old-school. If I get a call, I'll call back in between periods."