Sharyn Freindlich
ENG 3029
Research paper
5/6/13
Introduction:
Technology is huge in modern day living. From What I’ve seen, more and more people are using cellphones at an earlier age. Texting has become a huge phenomenon.
The focus of my study is to determine if text-messaging lingo and acronyms have an ultimate effect on proper and professional grammar and writing. My focus is on current college students. I plan to prove that a negative affect occurs with the use of these abbreviated words.
I choose this topic because communication is constantly changing. It is interesting how people perceive words and symbols. Someone can interpret a word differently than someone else and that is a conflict. With all of the acronyms around in the modern day world, I feel that it is important to examine how much people actually know what they mean. ( expand on introduction? )
Literature Review:
Text messaging is known to have a specific perception by college students. In “A Comparison of Student use and Understanding of Text Messaging Shorthand at Two Universities”, the authors researched two universities and how their students perceive text messaging. In their conclusions, it was understood how shorthand and acronyms were deemed appropriate for peers and family. Though, certain inappropriateness was found for texting professors, vendors, teachers, and professionals. Students felt the need to write out and spell out the entire words when talking to these people.
When conducting research regarding whether acronyms negatively impacts language skills, students responded with a broad variety of opinions.
( I have to look into my source further. I originally had 2 sources but the first one didnt have enough information)
( I have to look into my source further. I originally had 2 sources but the first one didnt have enough information)
Methods:
In order to gather my data, I decided to conduct a 13 question survey developed on a web-based program called Qualtrics. These questions were carefully thought out to challenge the knowledge of acronyms in College students. Not only was it designed to target the knowledge, but to also gather data that assesses knowledge and perception of academic writing. Every response gets saved into the system so the results can show as graphs that can be copied and pasted to Microsoft word or Excel.
It was a challenge coming up with the correct questions to ask that would get me good results for my analysis. In total, I received responses from 20 people to take the survey. After reviewing the results, I had to decide what responses I wanted to analyize.
(This is what I have discovered so far .... there is a lot of data to rummage through)
(This is what I have discovered so far .... there is a lot of data to rummage through)
Data Analysis:
How often do you use Acronyms (abbreviated words) while texting daily?
#
|
Answer
|
Response
|
%
| |||
1
|
Never
|
2
|
10%
| |||
2
|
Sometimes
|
13
|
65%
| |||
3
|
Always
|
5
|
25%
| |||
Total
|
20
|
100%
|
This data shows the different responses for the use of acronyms today. As we can see from the diagram above, almost every person who had taken the survey has used an acronym at least once in their lives. Only two out of twenty admitted to never using acronyms. What I gather from this chart is that most people use them but not all the time.
Do you think that abbreviating words will affect academic writing?
#
|
Answer
|
Response
|
%
| |||
1
|
Yes
|
13
|
65%
| |||
2
|
No
|
7
|
35%
| |||
Total
|
20
|
100%
|
This chart shows how people view the changing of academic writing. A little bit more than half the responses answered that it would, while the rest answered otherwise. ( I need to add more description)
What does the texting acronym "ur" mean?
#
|
Answer
|
Response
|
%
| |||
1
|
You are
|
0
|
0%
| |||
2
|
Your
|
8
|
40%
| |||
3
|
You're
|
1
|
5%
| |||
4
|
All of the Above
|
10
|
50%
| |||
5
|
I am not sure exactly...
|
1
|
5%
| |||
Total
|
20
|
100%
|
I found this question very interesting. The answers are scattered around. The correct answer that I was looking for was all of the above, which is what half of my survey takers answered. The word “ur” is abbreviated from all three versions of your. Not seeing the differences between the tenses of the word has a big affect on professional writing. When asked “Do you know the meaning of your, you’re, and you are?” all of the responses were a yes. This makes the argument about “ur” conflicting.
Since you selected, "Yes" to feeling that your texting style has changed from when you started to now, please briefly explain why your style changed? (12/ 20 responses)
- I originally started with abbreviations and acronyms. I never used to use capitalization and punctuation. Now I use proper grammar
- I have started using acronyms more and have created my own acronyms
- I type with less acronyms. When I first received a phone with the ability to text, the type of phone I had made it very difficult to type. Acronyms were a must for that type of phone keys. Now that I’m older and equipped with better technology.
- I do not feel the need to use it as much. I prefer to use the full word or phase.
- When I was younger I used to use a lot of acronyms but as I got older I stopped altogether.
- I have started to use a lot more acronyms than before.
- My style changed from abbreviations to full words and sentences.
- I have gotten a lot more proper when I text now. I used to use faces like :D or =( and I used to use caps a lot, lots of abbreviations. Now I write in full sentences and spell everything out.
- I became an adult
Conclusion:
After all the research for my assumption of how text-messaging lingo and acronyms have an ultimate effect on proper and professional grammar and writing, I have come to the conclusion that ( after going through all the data anaysis I will write this)
Work Cited:
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