Writing & the Web by Michelle Stein

I try not to be the Sheriff of Lexicon, but reading the growing volume of incorrect writing on the web makes me cringe. As I age, however, I notice I am becoming more tolerant of linguistic mayhem. We know that language evolves. Who am I to say what is and isn’t “correct”? Why should the language spoken in Victorian England be deemed more correct than the urban dialect that has become hashtags, abbreviations, and slang so pervasive in the stream of commentary? Some would say this is yet another example of our cultural demise, but simplicity is a hallmark of efficiency, not a lack of knowledge.

Each year, I find more social media shortcuts appearing in student writing, for example, the ampersand (&) instead of 'and,' b/c rather than 'because', u for 'you'. At the beginning of the school year, I explain to my students and their parents that with formal structured writing, students are learning a new language that is not native to them. Until about fifth grade, the books that students typically read are short bursts of text constructed similarly to social media conversation. Text-messaging and the short-clipped alpha “bites” are how they communicate. Lengthy sentence structures and multisyllabic vocabulary are not what flow naturally from their mouth or pencil/keyboard.

My strongest writers are those who are also voracious novel readers. While this is not new information, it did make me stop to evaluate which students have early and easy access to social media. You won’t be surprised to hear the students with the strongest writing ability have limited access to a smartphone or social media apps. These students are exposed to longer writing with greater frequency than their screen-addicted peers. Therefore, I am challenged with teaching the “efficient” writers to say more, while society is telling them to say less. No wonder it is so hard for them to write. Even as I write this post, I am struggling with saying enough to get my point across while simultaneously maintaining the required word count. I’ve got my work cut out for me, both as a writer and in the classroom! Got any suggestions? Ping me ;)


Michelle Stein has been teaching at the Davis Academy Middle School in Atlanta, GA for over 17 years. She loves to grow her PLN via Twitter @steinatdavis. You can find her class blog at www.tdams6thla.blogspot.com and her professional blog at www.steinology.weebly.com.