Thursday, December 23, 2004

WUCIWUG

Many articles have been written about how the popularity of texting, and the entirely new idiom it has given rise to, is bound to affect the literacy and writing skills of people growing up today. Well, a new study has found that these fears are misplaced. The Guardian reports that the study "comparing the punctuation and spelling of 11- and 12-year-olds who use mobile phone text messaging with another group of non-texters conducting the same written tests found no significant differences between the two." It continues:

According to the author of the research, the speech and language therapist Veenal Raval, the findings reflect children's ability to "code switch", or move between modes of communication - a trend familiar to parents whose offspring slip effortlessly between playground slang and visit-the-grandparents politeness.

WUCIWUG, by the way, means "what you see is what you get" in texting parlance. What this study proves, of course, is WUCINWUG

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