The Idea of an Essay, Volume 4

Research Writing 127 present throughout the person’s life. When someone writes a book or a paper, the reader observes the author’s voice. “Voice” is the style, tone, or feel that impresses itself upon the reader, and is what causes people to have favorite authors. Just like the author’s voice controls the feel of the written work, and not the other way around, it would make sense that the texter’s voice, or literacy ability, would control the feel of the text; the message does not change the texter’s literacy. Textese has, if any, a positive effect on literacy. According to the teachers interviewed by D. Wray, the students’ are smart enough to correctly distinguish when it is and is not appropriate to use textese. Some teachers mentioned that children with a lower literacy level may have more textese appear in their school work, but this is actually another example of textese being a reflection of one’s literacy. It would make logical sense that if children are struggling with literacy, they may interject textisms to better express themselves. For example, if a child is unsure of how to spell a word, but his/her brain is used to phonetically sounding out and creating textese, he/ she may resort to a phonetic spelling of the word. Although this might seem detrimental, it is actually beneficial. Even though the child may have spelled the word incorrectly, they did not give up. They tried to express their point through use of creativity. I asked a few classmates how they felt texting has affected their literacy. One said that he feels his literacy has been improving because of it. He discussed that texting is almost like writing miniature quick-response essays, and this has improved his communication skills because he must quickly choose words to specifically articulate his responses and ideas. This exercises his vocabulary and quick-thinking which also translates to face-to-face interaction. Another stated that he has always had trouble with spelling. But now, when texting, auto-correct, a program that automatically corrects spelling errors, gives him instant feedback about his spelling. He said that he feels his spelling has improved because of it. Although currently, our standardized languages do not allow textisms to be used, we should still promote the use of texting and instant messaging. We should also encourage the professional world to begin recognizing textese as an appropriate form of communication, as it saves time and is easy to use. Literacy is affected by so much more than just texting and instant messaging. Grace, Kemp, Martin, and Parrila determined that the use of textisms by an individual is a direct representation of a variety of linguistic, social, and technological factors that were present when the individual was introduced to textese (Grace et al., 2014, p.