Let's Talk Text-Speak by Kayla Gaffney

Text-speak is defined as a way of conveying longer words and phrases by using substitutive letters, numerals or characters. Oddly, this new form of writing can not be translated easily into a verbal format. As demonstrated in the assignment asking us to re-type articles into text-speak, this form of language comes with it's own form of difficulty. Young students are incorporating text-speak words into formal essays. As Shawna Blumenschein writes is her own text-speak blog,"The habit of using text speak in one's writing is a mistake." It is a strong belief that shortening the English language ruins the beauty that words express.  

John Humphrys speaks about how slang words are affecting the English language in a negative way in his article I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language. He expresses his view on how  dictionaries are becoming a thing of the past and that without searching for a word in a dictionary, there is no voyage in writing. While I agree that text-speak has no place in settings that are formal, such as schools or an office environment, I believe that using this form of language is sufficient for sending personal messages. It adds variety to language while not resorting to a thesaurus. Text-speak creates its own art by taking letters, numbers, and symbols and turning them into pictures. Text-speak may not be ruining our language, but it has no place in formal environments.