Dear Colleagues:

My co-author and I were asked to develop a 2nd edition of our usage book aimed at a general audience (McGraw-Hill Guide to Grammar & Usage).  I'd like to pick your brains about the content of a particular section.

One brief chapter we'll add is tentatively titled "textspeak," and our goal is to offer guidance regarding grammar and usage regarding e-communication in diverse contexts (email, text messages, social networking, etc.).   This includes what should be common sense (e.g., avoid textspeak when writing formal hardcopy or formal e-texts.

For the most part, there are few 'rules' that apply all these diverse situations, so our guidance will be broad and flexible for the most part. 

However, are there specific grammar or usage issues that you think are worth discussing with a broad range of readers in terms of e-texts?   Are there common errors, for instance, that you see that involve 'textspeak' or e-communication?   It's hard to develop rules or conventions in such a quickly-changing mode of communication, but do you see particular grammar, punctuation, or perhaps even stylistic problems that commonly occur in e-texts (or because of e-texts)?

For instance, even in informal e-communication, I often see certain distracting or confusing language or punctuation choices--such as using acronyms that aren't commonly known (I responded to my wife's text the other day by answering "y" to a question.  She saw this as challenging her question, while I thought it was clear I meant "yes".  She won.)  Another problematic choice even in informal e-texts is, I think, not using sentence-ending punctuation in any sentence except the last in a text message.

If anyone has time for discussing 'particularly annoying or confusing' usage choices involving e-communication, I would appreciate your thoughts.

Larry Beason

____________________________
Larry Beason, Associate Professor
Director of Composition
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688-0002
Office: 251-460-7861
FAX: 251-461-1517

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/