14/10/2016
Letter to the Editor:
To: Laura Clark, Daily Mail
From: Karma Thomas
I usually enjoy reading many of the Daily Mail articles as it is routine in my day, but I was appalled when reading "Twtr? It's majorly bad! Leading headteacher condemns 'text speak' for eroding schoolchildren's language skills" by you, Laura Clark. Throughout this article, you astonishingly neglect other factors and simply blame everything on text speak. I usually come to Daily Mail to get informed about issues from many perspectives but your close minded article leaves no room for people to actually assess the situation.
First of all, you make it seem as if teenagers are the only ones that use text speak if you look at statistics from David Crystal, you would understand that 80% of people who text are adults. So not even half of the people texting are teenagers and even then only 10% of the text is actually abbreviated, starting to see the picture? How is it fair to blame all text speak on teenagers when they aren't even the ones using it the most.
"If youngsters are not reading in the same way, and if they are spending a lot of time using social media, I wonder how much new vocabulary they are exposed to." Your sources clearly have no idea what they are talking about which reflects on this article. Developing English skills is based on constant practice or reading and writing, you can practice by reading right? To even state that being on social media means that they are not practising is grossly ignorant as if you are on social media you are reading CONSTANTLY. You even have more of a chance of learning new vocab because you are exposed to a variety of articles and people who may know different words. It infuriates me to read this line because it is so blatantly obvious that you are reading, you are reading my letter right now, aren't you? This letter is currently being shared through email which is a form of social media.
"GCSE and A-level examiners have also warned that text message slang is appearing in students' answers, revealing how youngsters are becoming careless in their use of it." Probably the only line in your whole article I agree with but you are using it for the wrong point. Text speak is not ruining teenagers standard English, they know how to write properly because if they didn't then it would know how to abbreviate. Students simply aren't being taught by teachers, parents or society when it is appropriate and that is what your article fails to mention.
Please for your next article just remember to try and include more sides to an argument.
Hey Karma!
ReplyDeleteI honestly loved reading your letter because your honest tone allows you to deliver your ideas clearly and effectively. You were able to structure your letter in a clear and focused manner that comprises of relevant factual information. This means you were able to be concise throughout your letter which is in my opinion a skill that you should keep up. However I feel like something that you could improve on is stating a clear purpose of writing this letter that would direct the flow of your ideas. By doing so, you will be able to conclude your thoughts and ideas much more clearly by the end of the letter rather than just saying "remember to include more sides to an argument". Not to forget that honesty really is a key feature of a letter however I feel like at times, you were harsh with sentences like: "Your close minded article leaves no room for people to actually assess the situation." Other than that, this is one of my favourite approaches to our task "Letter to the Editor". Excellent job Karma! Looking forward for your future blogposts.
Hi Karma, i really liked how you projected your views in a really passionate way. Relating your points to the information given to us during class, shows how you had a good understanding of this topic. i agree on how because of how technology has developed, students are more exposed to more reading material, and that shouldn't be an excuse to say that it limits their vocabulary. keep up the good work!
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