RE: Like I mean: "Grammar Stinks."

Subject: RE: Like I mean: "Grammar Stinks."
From: Jim Shaeffer <jims -at- spsi -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 14:54:24 -0400


A month ago, I might have agreed with Bruce (quoted below). But -

My daughter recently started college and we find that Instant Messaging
is becoming our most-used medium of communication.
While participating in an IM session, the pressure to complete every
thought ASAP is physically draining. It's really quite an experience
for an old guy like me. Adopting the conventions of IM-speak seems to
be the only sensible thing to do.
It is a weird feeling.

Also, note that telegrams engendered their own non-standard grammar and
usage (inspired by the per word cost of the message). These things had
only a peripheral impact on standard usage. (Maybe, IM-speak is a
response to the "per second" cost of the messages.)

As for:

> I wonder if the speed of comprehension depends on whether you were
> taught to read phonetically or using whole language methods?

I think it is like the usefulness of icons in an interface. Once
you learn to _recognize_ them they communicate more quickly. If you
need to _interpret_ them, you'll never understand what's meant.

Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com]
>
> I was taught phonetically, and don't have much problem with AOL speak
> myself.
>
> The reason that I don't use it is that I'm not a teenager,
> and nothing's more pathetic than a middle-aged man
> trying to pretend he knows the youth culture.
>
> (Come to think of it, the best way to kill AOL speak would be to have
> everybody use it. Once the kids see their parents use it,
> they'll start using proper grammar to differentiate themselves)
>


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