Internet Slang and Writing

The phenomenon you are about to read of is an atrocity that is being faced in classrooms across the US, from middle school through college, and it a blight upon the fair face of good writing conventions.  What could be so terrible as to warrant such a response?  Why, only the use of internet slang and text-speak in formal writing.  It has become so problematic that some students are actually using emoticons on test papers for essay question responses.  Emoticons.  Yes, really.

Instead of saying words, they will simply spell out the abbreviations used to text their friends — and yet, when these students are polled, most agree that writing is incredibly important, a skill which, left un-mastered, could result in missing out on the job of one’s dreams.  How do we get these students out of the trap of using slang and back into a more appropriate formal dialogue when the occasion calls for it?  There seems to be no easy answer, but enjoy the following infographic anyway.  It sheds some light on what kind of language students are using and in what situations.