It’s Not So Gr8
When e-mail slang slips into students’ schoolwork.
by Karen Ferwerda


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, make weekend plans and stay in touch with out-of-town relatives via e-mail and Instant Messaging (IM). As students head back to school, 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 do not follow them back to the classroom.

According to a recent survey by Sylvan Learning Center, 91 percent of teachers nationwide say they do not accept the use of this informal writing style in their students’ assignments.

Parents should talk to their children about using different styles of language to communicate with different audiences, as adults do in work and home environments. Just as students would talk to an adult at school differently than to a friend at the beach, they need to remember to adjust their writing style. Formal writing for the classroom must be grammatically correct, with full words and proper sentence structure. Slang and shortcuts are commonplace in e-mail and Instant Messaging, but not acceptable in schoolwork.

E-mail and IM style of writing isn’t all bad however, since it does encourage students to write more often. In fact, more than three quarters (76 percent) of teachers surveyed agree that children can benefit from e-mail and IM as a learning opportunity. When crafting e-mails, children are challenged to carefully choose their words, keep it simple and use relatively few words to convey tone and meaning appropriately. The popularity of Internet writing is also helping children see writing as a fun activity that encourages creative writing, and not just something they “have to do.”

What Parents Need to Know

Parents will soon notice 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 exam, will soon 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 make the shift to an academic style of writing easier.

What Parents Can Do

Parents can make the most of their child’s interest in e-mail and other computer writing by helping them 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 Web sites 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 of Sylvan Learning Center offer parents the following tips to avoid IM and e-mail 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.

•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 MadGab® that help build language and vocabulary skills.

·Edit schoolwork for IM and e-mail style language. Encourage your children to write properly and take the time to carefully review assignments several times before submitting to the teacher. Review your child’s homework to make sure they aren’t using shortcuts or slang.

·Talk with children to establish ground rules for using IM and e-mail. Work with your child to develop a plan for using IM and e-mail to make sure other responsibilities such as completing homework and chores are met before going online to chat with friends. Discuss time limits with your children and make sure they are kept. Consider putting your family rules in writing and posting them near the computer.

·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 one hour per week— since reading will help teach him 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 he will be at both.


To understand teachers’ experience with e-mail and instant messaging, Sylvan Learning Centers conducted an online survery with teachers who use Book Adventure, a free reading motivation program created by the Sylvan Learning Foundation. More than 1,176 public and private school teachers throughout North American took part in this survey.