Research Paper

The title of my research paper was:
“Internet English: How Computers Have Impacted Students’ Writing Skills”

I chose this topic because I think that computers have had a HUGE impact on writing skills. Just as I found in my research, these impacts can be both positive and negative. From using IM and writing e-mails, my typing skills have improved greatly. That’s a whole different topic though, because typing skills have nothing to do with writing skills. I do notice, however, that using the computer I can write a whole paper using my own lingo/spelling and then go back and fix stuff afterwards. With paper and a pencil, I have to stop writing (and my thought process) and erase my mistakes. Paper and pencil to me is like a traffic jam; your brain is on overdrive, wanting to zoom on by and get all of your thoughts down, but we have to keep stopping and going. A perfect example was writing this research paper. I typed the whole 10 pages without fixing the spell/grammar check. Only after I finished did I reread the whole paper and fix everything. This allowed me to go at a faster pace and stay in the “zone.”

On a negative note, I can completely understand why teachers are becoming frustrated with the IM-lingo being infiltrated into homework and essays. I remember when I was in high school (circa 1999-2003), my grandma learned how to use IM. It was so weird talking to her on-line because she actually used proper grammar. I would type: “hey grams, whats up?” and five minutes later I would get a message back that looked like this: “Hello, Chrissy! How are you today? Are you having fun in school? I went to Bingo today and won $6.00!” I’ll admit that I have fallen into the IM lingo. Lol is probably my most used phrase on-line. I’ve omitted the ‘-ugh’ from though because ‘tho’ is easier to type. Although I’m not victim to the ‘rofl’ and other unrecognizable acronyms, I don’t use proper capitalization, spelling, or grammar on-line. The difference is that I know when and when not to use this language. I will send an email to friends using IM-lingo and maybe slip up in an email to a professor with the occasional IM lingo, but I would never turn in an assignment or write a paper with that language in it. Students may be using this lingo now in elementary, middle, or high school, but as they grow older, they will know when it is appropriate to use it, as I learned. This is the type of language that this generation grew up with. We will never be able to stop them from using the language on-line, and it would take a lot of work to completely erase this lingo from schoolwork. We can, however, teach students in a way that minimizes these errors. We cannot complain about a few IM typos in papers when in reality, computers have allowed our students to write outside of class, in a way that they have come to love.