Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Student Story: Digital Written Communication

Another form of content that I want to include on this blog is "student stories" from teaching CAT classes. Student interaction, whether in person or online, usually yields frustrating, humorous, and insightful stories about working with undergraduates.

Today's story: Poor Digital Written Communication Skills

I communicate daily with students through email. Throughout the past year, I have noticed the quality of writing that appears in email messages is poor. I received another such message the other day and feel compelled to share:

hey i m sorry i keep having to rescheduele but i have a grandma that jus got out the hospital wit a broken hip so im headed home for the weekend and is it mandatory tat i meet u? jus curious cause if not ill jus see u nxt class session. or monday between my other classes

The message above has not been edited for grammar, spelling, punctuation, or capitalization. I copied and pasted directly from the email. I did not include the student's name, well, because they didn't sign their email (one of the important criteria described below). Obviously, you can identify several errors in the message and I won't take your time to edit it and show what you I expected to read. However, this email concerns me and I began asking myself the following questions:
  • How will this student digitally communicate in future jobs?
  • Should I include a lesson in this course about grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization?
  • Should I bring in a Language Arts teacher for special digital writing lesson?
  • Is this a result of poor grammar training or a side effect of text messaging?
When reading about this topic, I found the following link provided by ISTE. In this webpage, Peter Weddle overviews the "7 Habits of Good Online Communication".

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/CareerCenter/Resources/The_7_Habits_of_Good_Online_Communicatio.htm

After reading through these, you will notice that my student who sent the message above might need to edit future emails and digital communication with Weddle's criteria close by.

Have has anyone received similar email messages? Feel free to paste them as a comment.


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