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Schoolgirl submits text message essay
By Patrick Sawer, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 03.03.03Text messaging is becoming more and more popular, but have things now gone too far?
Education experts today warned that the craze has got out of hand after a schoolgirl handed in an essay written entirely in text shorthand.
When the 13-year-old submitted her work she explained she found it "easier than standard English". However, her teacher at the state secondary school in the west of Scotland found it incomprehensible, saying: "I could not believe what I was seeing.
"The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate."
At the risk of betraying their age, we invite readers to make sense of the following extract from the girl's work:
"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4 we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :-kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." In more familiar language this means: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriends and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place."
Quite apart from the poor vocabulary and thought displayed by this teenager, education experts are worried about the effect on literacy posed by the fashion for mobile text messaging.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority has expressed its concerns in a report on last year's Standard Grade exams, saying "text messaging was inappropriately used" in the English exam.
Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said: "There must be rigorous efforts to stamp out the use of texting as a form of written language so far as English study is concerned."
