Teens' texting symbols invade schoolwork :-(

OMG! The shortcuts and symbols that teenagers use in electronic conversations are creeping into their schoolwork!

That's one of the conclusions of a study released Thursday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing, and it's no surprise to Sacramento teens.

"My drama teacher gets papers that use "b/c" for "because," said Katie Talbot, a senior at McClatchy High School in Sacramento. "Sometimes I get text messages and I have no idea what they mean. Why can't people just use a few more letters and have it make sense? I think writing is very important. I guess my generation is just super-lazy."

Talbot herself is anything but lazy. She texts and e-mails "pretty much all day," she said, but takes pains to use proper language. "I always use full, grammatically correct English," she said.

She is in the minority, according to the Pew research.

A national telephone poll of 700 youths ages 12 to 17 and their parents found that 64 percent of teens admit that the breezy shortcuts and symbols commonly used in text messaging have appeared in their school assignments.

Those can include shortened words ("cuz" for "because") acronyms ("LOL" for "Laugh Out Loud") emoticons (symbols used to convey emotions) and characters like & and @.

Teachers are not necessarily :) about the trend.

"If I saw more of it, I would be concerned," said Lori Jablonski, who teaches history and government at McClatchy. "Sometimes my students will use those shortcuts and symbols in little notes, but not in their formal work. They're mostly seniors, and right now they are working on United Nations position papers."

When informal language does pop up in papers, "I definitely am going to correct it," she said. "But it's part of our job as teachers to help students move in and out of formal and informal language."

Some teens say they use the electronic shorthand without even thinking about it and have accidentally incorporated it into their schoolwork. Yet those who took part in the survey distinguish between the language of text messaging and e-mailing and the "real" writing that they do for school.

Kaely Mullins, a senior at St. Francis High School in Sacramento, said informal language is fine in certain contexts.

"The English teachers here really emphasize spelling out words and using correct grammar," she said. "To me, it's not OK to use informal language in a letter or a formal writing assignment."

Mullins always writes full words and sentences, even in her text messages, although she occasionally uses "smiley faces" and other emoticons when communicating electronically. "It's harder to express emotions when you're text messaging," she said.

Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew, said in a statement accompanying the survey that it puts a spotlight on "a raging national debate" about whether high-tech communication by teens might be affecting their ability to write properly.

Teachers may be able to transform teenage zeal for communicating electronically into something positive, another researcher observed.

It's a question of connecting that enthusiasm with "classroom experiences that illustrate the power of well-organized, well-reasoned writing," said Richard Sterling, chairman of the advisory board for the National Commission on Writing.

Nearly 90 percent of the teens surveyed by Pew report that they engage in some form of electronic personal communication, whether it's text messaging, sending e-mail or instant messages or posting comments on social networking sites. But the vast majority of them say those communiques have no impact on the writing they do for school.

According to the survey, both teenagers and their parents believe that good writing is a bedrock for future success.

Think about that b4 you turn in that term paper.

About the writer:

• Call the Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916)321-1082