2004-12-03 - 11:04 p.m.

yes, this defines me as an old fogey.

Does anyone else cringe at the sight of non-words such as "cuz" or "ur," instead of "because" and "you're"??

I feel horribly old-fashioned...and yet these dreadful shorthands are increasingly prevalent on my students' exams, and in their emails to me.

I can't bring myself to use them. More importantly, I don't find them appropriate in an email to a professor. And I certainly don't find them appropriate in an exam.

And that brings me to my next question. Should a science teacher care about grammar and spelling? I think the answer is unequivocally yes. And yet, what does one do when faced with students cannot write their way out of a box? I mentioned to a student that he has a problem with spelling. He didn't seem remotely concerned by this.

On the one hand, I am pleased with modern texting and email, because it forces students to write words instead of merely speaking them. I have a theory that this may create a generation of people who are less afraid of their words.

My latest technique with undergraduate and graduate students with writer's block is to give them a series of questions. I then ask them to send me an email in which they discuss the answers to the questions with me. My theory is that this will force them to approach writing as a conversation instead of a brilliant discourse that is perfect the first time the words are laid on the page.

My concern now is that informal messaging is going to create essays of incomplete sentences full of "ur" and "cuz." ***cringe***