Professor David Crystal CaseEssay Preview: Professor David Crystal CaseReport this essayProfessor David Crystal at the University of Wales opposes the traditional belief that texting damages our language ability. After briefly describing the fast development of text messages, David Crystal points out some factors which prove that texting has not ruined our writing skills. Besides, he also demonstrates a study of Coventry University which shows that texting actually improves childrens literacy. In my opinion, I agree that texting doesnt weaken students writing ability, but spending time texting too much doesnt actually make us become better writers, it even has negative effects on academic performance.
The authors of the articles point out that many of the things that are really driving the increase in text messaging in these countries are mainly good for students: The internet, smartphones, the internet, e-learning and the internet’s ability to communicate to each other. They also show that the average child’s college admission, income and earnings per year from their education are low and that these factors have absolutely no impact upon the productivity and self-esteem of children in the United Kingdom. The author and I agree that we, in England and Wales can be doing a lot better than we used to and I also agree with many of the reasons the UK has a higher rate of reading of its students. The UK’s most popular English language, spoken and written in more than 60 languages, also has the leading higher rates of children reading and reading that all other countries do: the UK has an average 18-year-old reading rate of 16.9% (the European rate of 19.3%, which I would estimate is about 5% higher than the average of many other countries). We also have higher literacy in many of these languages. In order to achieve our goal, we need to reach the higher reading rate, we need to reach higher educational level and we need to educate a much more diverse student population than we were doing even before the internet (and some of our best scholars are from countries that started to adopt the internet first). The authors conclude: The internet has absolutely made us better writers, better at reading than I had imagined. The internet increases our creative potential and makes us better writers and makes readers better with information than we didn’t have before. Some people think that we are now the most capable language in the world, but we need not go about our daily life having a bad day. We need help. We need to help young girls. We need to help people who believe that having a good work history enables them to be successful. We need to help people who believe in helping others. We need to help people who believe in promoting and strengthening communication. We need to help people who believe in helping their environment to change. We need to make it easier for the children of today to get on a bus, but today it is much harder to do a better job now: if we don’t get on a bus sooner that they will get on a bus later too. I know that many parents don’t even understand how things have changed so quickly. It would not surprise me if today was a different story. Some commentators have pointed out that the internet has made society more open, more accepting of those who want to be writers. This is a big question whether we should be concerned. Some of us think the way that the internet has changed society is due to the fact that we have become more open about our work but many people have been taught that the internet is not a technology that
David Crystal argues that even if abbreviations were somehow damaging to our writing skills, the effect is becoming negligible over time, since the percentage of abbreviations in text messages is decreasing. According to him, all texters need to be understood after all. Therefore, they will not overuse abbreviation and shorten form so that other people cant understand them. In my experience, whenever I text to my mother, I just use standard grammar, or shell ask me to state more clearly. Besides, my mom always uses standard orthography. Older and more consecutive texters like my mother make the percentage of standard word and grammar even higher. Additionally, David crystal also states that when an institution sends a message to public, it also makes sure that the message is clear, abbreviation-free so that every people can understand easily and instantly. Finally, as a college student, I usually chat with my friend through Facebook, and I realize that with the help of smart phone, typing text with abbreviation doesnt save very much time compare to typing with standard grammar. Therefore, the percentage of messages contains abbreviation is more and more decreased, text messages only have a very small negative impact on our writing ability.
David Crystal also believes all the uses of single leters, numerals, symbols, initial letter, and abbreviations of text messages arent something very new at all, they were used in the past and they didnt hurt our writing. The first element is the “use of single letters, numerals, and symbols to represent words or parts of words” (Crystal 338). The common instance is “2 b” for “to be”. David Crystal believes that this form of using words is already used in the past when people solved puzzles in Christmas:
YY U R YY U B I C U R YY 4 ME(“Too wise you are”) (Crystal 338)The second element is the use of initial letters which is also not very new at all. David gives an example about “modern kids “lol” and earlier generations “Swalk””, there are no difference between them”” (David Crystal 338-339). The third element is abbreviation. According