Students use IM-lingo in essays

[ozgeek]

I can see the increase in leet or IM speak in todays communications but in professional settings, full, proper lettering must be taken into consideration. Using abbreavations like those IM or SMS text in an essay, assignment or resume, only shows that you are lazy and have very low language skills. It is fine for sms or oher quick writing but not in academic settings.

Some of you need to go back to school and contrenrate in your English classes. That class will benefit you in the long run for your employment or career. Many peopl will not want to employ people who are lazy or do not present themselves in a professional fashin. This includes language usage as well.

[DanManIt]

Anyone who uses IM-speak in anything outside of the internet and chatting should be smacked. It isn't difficult at all to just type the words out and use proper English. I think that if I was a professor/teacher I would make the student rewrite the essay or paper and return it in as a normal paper. Shorthand has it's place and it isn't in formal essays.

[xxdesmus]

That is too funny. I say flunk 'em. If these morons can't separate IM from the real world...well... enjoy pumping my gas :whistle:

[the evn show]

Do you know how pretentious it is to use numbers to shorten words in writing assingments, like 'b4'?

"Pretentious": the word doesn't mean what I think you think it does.

OAD: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

Using pseudo-short hand that is popular among children is as far form pretentious as possible.

Essays dont address a person anyway.

Every piece of writing addresses someone or no communication can occur.

When a young man applies for his first job and types up a cover letter with:

Dear Sir:

How are u?

That resume is straight into the trash - professionals know what to look for.

In every place I've worked they end up posted to the board near the coffee machine so that everybody in the office can have a good laugh.

EDIT: Every so often we schedule interviews with these types of people for Friday afternoons. Toying with goons is a great way to kill the last 3 hours of the week without it being obvious that you're slacking off.

[L3thal Veteran]

That is too funny. I say flunk 'em. If these morons can't separate IM from the real world...well... enjoy pumping my gas :whistle:

In certain states, that is. In most states, they can clean my windshield :yes:

[PsychoDoughBoy]

Everyone so far has just assumed that these words are part of the English language when in my opinion they are two seperate languages

I would consider abbreviations a type of slang rather than a part of the language.

When a young man applies for his first job and types up a cover letter with:

Dear Sir:

How are u?

That resume is straight into the trash - professionals know what to look for. So imho it's a non-issue. Teachers should adapt and learn the terms so they can be familiar with them and act upon misuses. To dismiss them entirely as a "OMG UR WORLD IS D00m3d lolz" outcome is unreasonable.

A smart teacher would use these terms in study to connect to his class, get them to think critically about their use, maybe have the class come up with a new abbreviation. Maybe English class wouldn't suck so much.

I binned seven resumes once purely because they contained either minor typographical errors or misplaced apostrophes.

[DrunkenMaster]

LOL! LOL! Mi 4th yr ppr on advanced pollicy for uni .... I had to do something on democracy the other day 'mate. it took me 4ever and I wrked real hard. I feel bad for ppl buying the essays on de Net. they learn nothing. my prof says u get what you get outta the class.

Edit: My brain hurts after trying to write that way. I can't even begin to understand how someone could write a whole paper that way.

@ Ozzgeek:

Some of you need to go back to school and contrenrate in your English classes.

That really does not help. Most schools try to teach grammar rules. Most people forget it. Instead of reading older (or "artistic") expressions of English in public schools, they should have students writing business reports or studies. Not artsy enough for the Enlish teachers deciding what they teach.

My English only improved at university since it was only then that I begun writing about things that interested me.

Edited February 12, 2007 by DrunkenMaster

[primexx]

LOL! LOL! Mi 4th yr ppr on advanced pollicy for uni .... I had to do something on democracy the other day 'mate. it took me 4ever and I wrked real hard. I feel bad for ppl buying the essays on de Net. they learn nothing. my prof says u get what you get outta the class.

Neowin is an English forum. Please use only the English language to communicate on Neowin. Thank you.

[Intelligen]

Ok i admit, i'm done with college and work as a network administrator and i find myself typing "ppl" "2" "lol" but i always catch myself and backspace and type the correct word. I guess my brain has been trained but it catches it. I would never submit work with these phrases in them, ever!

[DrunkenMaster]

Ok i admit, i'm done with college and work as a network administrator and i find myself typing "ppl" "2" "lol" but i always catch myself and backspace and type the correct word. I guess my brain has been trained but it catches it. I would never submit work with these phrases in them, ever!

Its funny the way things work though. Many employers screen candidates on their ability to communicate. The vast majority of the e-mail and conversations tend to have grammatical errors, unclear messages and slang. I see this all the time in the public and private sector. Am I the only one who sees the irony?

[locke]

the age issue should also be considered

kids' language learning ability is best before they are 14 afaik, and personally i wasnt exposed to a whole lot of IM-speak before i was 14. its probably why i dont have any trouble keeping im-speak from my essays (hasnt even accidentally crept into my reports that are type written).

things might be different now, which is why these kids are finding it harder to leave it out

i find it acceptable to skip punctuation on online forums however ;p

[j.r.l.]

Well, I tend to skip periods...

[pyehac]

I don't see how kids can confuse IM language with english language (but then, I don't get other things that are happening nowadays.)

[Septimus]

Well if they are thick enough to use IM speak for official work or school reports etc, then fail them.

The teacher should just tell them any work handed in with that crap in it gets an instant fail.

[redfish]

"Pretentious": the word doesn't mean what I think you think it does.

OAD: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

Using pseudo-short hand that is popular among children is as far form pretentious as possible.

Every piece of writing addresses someone or no communication can occur.

In every place I've worked they end up posted to the board near the coffee machine so that everybody in the office can have a good laugh.

EDIT: Every so often we schedule interviews with these types of people for Friday afternoons. Toying with goons is a great way to kill the last 3 hours of the week without it being obvious that you're slacking off.

Doing something because you're trying to be cool, or because you think doing something some way is cool, is an example of pretension. One thing I think is that a lot of people overuse shorthand because its the cool thing to do. A lot of people overuse profanity because they think its cool. A lot of people try to make things overfun because they think fun is cool. Its not the typical example of pretension, but it is pretension.

There's this view common in some rhetoric departments in universities thats overconcerned with looking pretentious, so they avoid past tense, they try to make the writing active and fun, avoid sounding objective. But it becomes so deliberate and self-conscious it becomes pretentious itself. There's nothing more pretentious than trying so hard to avoid appearing pretentious.

Pretension doesn't necessarily mean an attempt to impress someone else though, its just an affectation you take on because you think you understand something when you don't.

The word 'pretentious' comes from the word 'pretend', which leads to the word 'pretense'. 'Pretense' means to be doing something thats an act. This is an archaic use now (19th century), but to "engage in pretense" used to mean to play around in make-believe, like pretending to be cowboys and indians. Pretension usually just means you're being fake because you're trying to be something you're not---or think you understand something but don't---or trying to make something what it isn't---or anything else that appears 'fake'.

My point was that if you're already formatting an essay, making sure to double space and indent and use punctuation, and title it correctly, and then use shorthand like "b4" instead of "before" you're likely doing it intentionally and will claim not to understand why its wrong. That attitude, I think, is pretentious. Like writing everything in lowercase letters in inappropriate situations, or switching capital letters and lowercase letters, or some other gimmick meant to show your individuality, is pretentious. But I'm sure it can happen other ways, like if someone does a rough draft of an essay entirely written in shorthand, before they start formatting it.