Re: 'Stereotype' thread - evolved.

[Janet_Hughes -at- ahm -dot- honda -dot- com]

This is interesting. I started corresponding by email with my nephew when he was
11. He's now almost 15. His writing skills have vastly improved over this period
of time. I email him using the same style I would use if I was writing a
snail-mail letter, and that is the type of response I get. I actually think that
keeping in touch with him via email letters has improved his letter writing
skills, and therefore his overall writing skills.
With the invention of the telephone came the decline communication via letter.
How many kids write thank you notes out there anymore? Or write to their
relatives in distant places. They pick up the phone now. I've watched as my
nephew's letter writing skills blossomed and counted it a blessing. Of course,
as he got older, he learned more in school, so that factors into his skill level
also.

Now I've got my 6 year old and 10 year old nieces (who live with me), emailing
my friends and their brother. It's fun, and they learn writing skills at the
same time. I also like the idea of them spending their time writing instead of
talking on the phone. They have to think of what they want to say and how they
want to say it in order to write it. My 10 year old niece is deaf, and using

email has improved her English skills a lot. It's really hard for deaf kids to
write proper English, because they don't think in SEE (Sign Exact English), but
in ASL (American Sign Language). If you think email shorthand can be difficult
to decipher, try figuring out what an 10 year old deaf kid is trying to say when
they write! Here's a couple of samples: Store go we now? When come home?

Like the force, email can be used for good or for evil, it's up to the young
users to decide how they will use their email. Let's hope Yoda and Obi Wan will
stick around for advice.





John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> on 11/08/2000 10:05:45 AM

Please respond to John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
 To:      "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>             
                                                              
 cc:      (bcc: Janet Hughes/AHM/AM/HONDA)                    
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
 Subject: Re: 'Stereotype' thread - evolved.                  
                                                              





I'd like to divert this thread to a different subject, that I think
we will find more suitable to this forum.


Some background. My girlfriend has a 15 year old daughter, and my
best friend has a 17 year old daughter and a 15 year old son.

Every once in a while, I'll get an email or IM from one of them, or
from kids of other friends (I'm working with two teenagers to teach
them how to put up a simple web) and I'm appaled at the lack of
structure, lack of grammar or punctuation, continuity, run-on
sentences, and spelling.  Everything is reduced to the minimum number
of characters; ur for your, u for you, etc. I understand the purpose
of shorthand, but for those that are at the stage of learning complex
composition, are they able to keep the two separate?

For all intents and purposes, this generation is the first generation
that is learning to write online. Not having kids, I don't know if
what I'm seeing is typical of the group, yet when they need to, are
able to compose sentences with nouns, verbs, and periods, or if this
is going to become the standard way of communicating once they get
into the workforce. If the later, what is this TW field going to
evolve into?

I'd be interested to hear if this is an actual issue or if I'm just
being "old", from any parents, teachers, or preferably, both, as to
how the two types of writing are kept in their place.

BTW...I was the one that mentioned about the two fast food change
incidents, and honest...I didn't mean to offend anyone. Really.

=====
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer, in process of looking
for next contract effective 1/1/2001.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master."
               -Abraham Lincoln
mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874





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