i know it's driving ME batty that there are more and more posts/comments/whatever in discussions and fora that read like someone who either cannot spell or can't be bothered to try. i can see that extreme abbreviation of words for SMS, and TDD (where it started), but doing it in a place where you don't have space issues is just lazy. i'm about to start skipping any post that uses that slang, just like i did/do for l33t speak.

So, the examiners feels that "the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing". Since when, in *proper* Engish, has 'impact' been a verb?

Yeah, it's the phone's fault, not teachers, the department of education or the parents themselves.

As I said elsewhere, maybe we should now tax handset providers and operators for the extra burden they're putting on our education system. Or maybe we should cop on and realise that children with bad spelling are such because they haven't been properly shown otherwise.

Muppets.

I'm studying languages part-time, and as a result, my spelling and punctuation (in English) are getting worse and worse.

Why?

Because my brain's getting used to dealing with languages that are by nature phonetically spelt, and where punctuation is also clearly phonetical.

English orthography is, at present, atrocious. There have been various calls over centuries for a standardisation of English spelling on a phonetical model, but the misguided snobs in charge of English schools and universities resisted.

The mobile phone text has finally given the notion an environment in which to flourish, and in the next few generations English might actually become a half-decent language.

Till then, ah'm gonnae gang back tae speakin like ah did when ah wis wee and stick wi the Scots....

I agree wholeheartedly that text messaging is creating nations of stupid kids who can't spell. I've seen it all over the net, even on manufacturer's product pages and physical packaging (granted, products from Chinese companies, so I give them the benefit of the doubt due to translation). Words such as "u", "ur", "b4", "ne1", etc. I can't even read this crap.

But I take offense at this part: Expertise in text messaging and email in particular would appear to have affected spelling and punctuation."

What does email have to do with poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation? I've been emailing since around 1992 (before the Internet became popular), and I have no trouble. The blame is to rest on the text messaging industry, and the reason for it is very simple -- small screens, and small keys with multiple letters per key. With a full-size screen and full-size keyboard (such as email, unless you're emailing from your phone), there is no need for such substitutions.

Bad grammar is one thing but to suggest that students should be taught to "explore the territory they had studied and to express the breadth and depth of their learning and understanding" is really asking for trouble. Awarding marks to schoolchildren based on volume of text inevitably leads to university students who write too much and then to researchers who write waaaaaaaay too much. I've found that the habit of padding simple ideas with meaningless explanations simply forces the reader to skim over entire documents just to find the few sentences that could have communicated the idea in it's entirety. Getting students to present the necessary details clearly and logically should (IMHO) take priority over getting them to write down every little insignificant detail. *shrug*