"OMG, did u C the report about txting and skool?

No, wuz up?

Here's the 411:

A study released Thursday confirmed what teachers, parents and academics have long suspected: All that instant messaging and texting teenagers do is creeping into schoolwork. In fact, 64 percent of youngsters ages 12 to 17 have used emoticons, text shortcuts and informal language in school assignments, the survey found.

But as the teens in the imagined conversation above might say, it's really NBD: no big deal.

"This is not a worrying issue at all," said Richard Sterling, chair of the advisory board for the National Commission on Writing. "The most important thing about writing is to teach audience and purpose. When this shows up in writing, it's a teachable moment that you can use to explain that, while in certain contexts this may be allowable, in others, it's not."


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