It's Not So Gr8 When Email Slang Slips into Students' Schoolwork and Written Work  

Plz practice your writing B4 U head bak 2 school. C U in a few wkz.

Millions of children (and adults!) use language like this to chat with friends, to make weekend plans, and to stay in touch with out-of-town relatives via email and Instant Messaging (IM). As students move from class to class and grade to grade, it is important that this informal writing style of shortened words, improper grammar, lack of punctuation, and use of "emoticons," such as smiley faces and other keyboard-created graphics, does not follow them.

What Parents Need to Know

There is an increasing demand for children to express themselves more strongly in writing. For example, more states are testing writing skills on proficiency exams. College entrance exams, such as the SAT, also include a writing section that requires students to write a short essay that reflects their mastery of core reading and language skills.

In order to do well on these important exams, students need to know how to write clear, well-organized essays in the short time allotted.  Help your child develop an understanding of the writing process by spending time thinking about a writing project, developing a brief outline, and rewriting drafts. By showing your children that writing is a multi-step process and not always instantaneous, parents can help their children more easily make the shift to an academic style of writing. Timed writing tips from understanding terminology to setting a plan can be found at

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/boost-your-skills/50269.html.

What Parents Can Do

Parents can make the most of their child's interest in email and other computer writing by helping them to avoid using an informal style of writing too often. Show children that writing can be more than a means of communicating with another person by introducing them to online journaling or websites that publish children's poems, letters, editorials, essays, or stories. Remember, a healthy combination of both styles can provide the best writing experience for your child.

To help children boost their effective writing skills, the experts at Sylvan Learning Center offer parents the following tips to avoid IM and email-style language making its way into schoolwork:

• Talk to children about using different writing styles to communicate with different audiences.

Describe the importance of personalizing messages and why it's important that students know their audience. While it's okay to close a letter with "C ya" to a friend in an IM, it is not okay to include this slang in homework assignments. Remind them that formality is required in school.  Formal writing for the classroom must be grammatically correct, with full words and proper sentence structure.  Slang and shortcuts are commonplace in email and Instant Messaging, but not acceptable in schoolwork.

• Have fun with writing. Provide children with enjoyable ways to practice their writing. Involve your child with writing grocery lists, thank you notes, dates on calendars, and messages. Or, play games like Blurt!^®, TriBond^®, and Mad Gab^® that help build language and vocabulary skills. Parents can complete a short survey, follow the links, and download a free writing journal, complete with suggested writing topics and decorative pages, at http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities/writing-journal.cfm. 
• Review schoolwork for IM and email style language. Encourage your children to write properly and take the time to carefully review assignments several times before submitting them to the teacher. Review your children's homework to ensure they are not using shortcuts or slang.

• Create a writing zone. Whether writing on a computer or with a notebook and pencil, it's important that your child has a well-organized place to write. Set up an area in your home for writing-a desk or table with a flat surface and good lighting. Make sure the area is free from potential distractions and that writing tools, including a dictionary, paper, and pens, are at your child's fingertips.
• Encourage your child to read. Read with your child at least 15 minutes per day-or at least one hour per week-since reading will help teach children about sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary. Reading and writing support each other and good readers become good writers. The more your child does of each, the better she will be at both.

Serena Edson is the Director at the Nampa Sylvan Learning Center. Sylvan Learning Center is the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages, grades, and skill levels.

To understand teachers' experiences with email and Instant Messaging, Sylvan conducted an online survey with teachers who use Book Adventure, a free reading motivation program created by Sylvan Learning Center. More than 1,176 public and private school teachers throughout North America participated in this survey.  Ninety-one percent of the respondents said they do not accept the use of informal writing style in their students' assignments and tests.