"F in Grammar? Maybe It's Your Phone's Fault"
This was an article featured in Upfront Magazine that I thought was very important to share. More and more students and young people are struggling with grammar, or just getting too lazy to proofread.
Gena Babineaux, a woman working at the YMCA of Greater Houston, had more than 2,000 job applications for office manager and among them, "Babineaux encountered mountains of misspellings, missing punctuation, spacing mistakes, and abbreviations that are fine in text messages but not in formal writing." She automatically pushes away any application with huge errors. She is just one of the many people who have become annoyed by young people's laziness and increase of writing mistakes. According to Karra Shimabkuro, a high school English teacher, "'IM-ing language. . . has become part of what [students] think is the standard vocabulary.'" The huge field of mistakes seems to be occuring with college applications. These mistakes can cost a student a chance at the school they desire, changing their entire future just because of social media or texting. At the same time, some people say that social media's influence is just the English language evolving.
So what do I think? Is the increasing amount of grammar mistakes just "English evolving"?
If it is, then it's not evolving in the right direction. Whenever I read sentences online with clear, huge mistakes, I begin to wonder if the person who typed it even cared. If they were to take a minute to just go back and re-read once, they would have seen it and fixed it. Honestly, everybody makes mistakes when they write or type, but the number of mistakes is just too much. I agree with Gena Babineaux and the college admissions offices, who believe that errors in applications, whether a job or college application, shows laziness. I do believe that it is caused by technology, including texting, Twitter, Facebook, or even just emailing. Now, I'm not saying that technology is awful. I have family that lives in other states or countries that I can Facebook message and wish a "Happy Birthday" to, to keep in touch and show them I care. I text, but I don't over do it with abbreviations. I always have my phone with me. I can still text with old friends that go to different schools. Technology is great! But the effects that it has on some people are not. Writing is important and you wouldn't want to miss a college or job opportunity that you could've had, had you proofread.
I agree that the English language is changing, and not exactly for the best. People are getting to be too lazy to go back and proofread their work; if they don’t than that could just be the mistake that costs them a job opportunity or admittance into a college. Technology could be used to our advantage instead of using it for the “OMG GUESS WHAT I DID TODAY” sort of situations. It is good to be able to keep in contact with friends and family who don’t live close by, but people seem to be using social media in the wrong way. Also, I agree that people should just take the time to check their work. It doesn’t hurt; it can only make things better.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The increase in major spelling and grammatical errors are increasing with all these websites like Facebook, twitter, and like you said even just e-mailing. If this keeps up, soon our language will be written like: "OMG i hve 2 brb." Now, this would drive me insane, because I hate texting language personally. Like you said, technology isn't awful, but I feel like if this doesn't change, people will soon think it is okay to make grammar mistakes because "Datz how i splls it on mi fone & on fb and twitter and all of dat. Y shuld wrting b n e diffs?" Like Mikayla and yourself said before, I do believe the language would not be evolving in a good way. Hopefully people become more aware of this before our language becomes to "I-Ming language" or "txtn" language.
ReplyDeleteIt's not like this problem can't be solved, or helped greatly. I read the article also, and it gave tips like on how to improve your spelling and grammar. For example, write out how you are feeling and not use emoticons such as (: or XD or ):.
I feel like all these mistakes are a cause of people getting lazy. I mean, does it really take that long to type instant messaging instead of I-ming? Really? In my opinion, that millisecond difference to type out the word instead of "txtn" it can improve so many errors and cause people to be more productive in their spelling and grammar uses.
Also, I feel that spellcheck is a huge part in why many people these days do not know how to use correct spelling and grammar. I know when I got spellcheck on my computer, my spelling skills went down the drain because I used to have to sound out the word, but with spell check, it was right there, and my spelling wasn't improving, it was only decreasing.
Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but I feel that people are starting to be the death of this language using properly. I mean, look at how people used to talk in the 1700s, and us now. People back then talked with and used "big words" that most people today wouldn't understand. I do believe that the way people today use our language is decreasing, not becoming more advanced.
-Jillian.