Beginning sentences with lower-case letters. Substituting single letters for whole words. Using an ampersand instead of spelling out the word "and." Adding letters and punctuation to make those cute little emoticons.
Clark County teachers have seen it all.
While it's become typical to see "LOL" and "JK" pop up in text messages and Internet chat sessions, teachers are also finding text slang seeping into their students' written work.
"OMG it's everywhere," quipped Mike Kleiner, an eighth-grade social-studies teacher at Chief Umtuch Middle School in Battle Ground.
With preteens and teens relying on their thumbs to communicate, Kleiner said it's no surprise that text lingo is appearing in students' schoolwork.
"I don't think it's a question of they don't know any better," he said. "The thing is, they don't practice any better. They're doing what they practice."
"It's not because they don't know the difference," Jeni McAnally, a teacher, said. "It's because they're choosing not to or being lazy."People also are creating new words, said Randy Cate, yet another teacher.
For example, people use "funner" instead of "more fun" or "funnier"; "funnest" instead of "funniest" or "most fun," he added. They also leave out apostrophes or use "their" when they mean "they're," he said.
"I'm talking less about whether they should or shouldn't do it but whether it's situationally appropriate," McAnally said. "That's the reality of literacy in the 21st century."
"I'm always on them about professional communication," Kleiner said. "You want to look smarter than your competitor. Misspelling isn't going to cut it."ORIGINAL SOURCE
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