26 years ago Neil Papworth sent the first text and changed the way we communicate forever. Now 6 million texts are sent per day and 8.6 trillion per year. With that many texts being sent its no wonder the English language is now constantly changing. Thanks to the younger generations we have many new ways to use text language some times you’ll even find text language is starting to be incorporated into the way young people speak in there daily lives. I don’t think Neil would have ever imaged texting to escalate so quickly and to such extent.

The younger generations have developed a subtle new form of the written language, one that only some would pick up on through there devices. One of the many ways people choose to change the written language is by repeating letters for emphasis, for example ”Heyyy” is a relatively common one. By adding the extra y’s on the end it creates more enthusiasm toward the word hey and can also be seen as a more flirtatious way to respond to a text. Another example of this would be “Nooooo” this is used to add more expression to the text rather than just “No”. Adding the extra o’s on the end adds a sense of urgency to the text as if someone was yelling it in slow motion. By adding the extra letters your essentially adding a sound effect to your texts, they are just there to reflect a sound into your texting that you would be able to identify if someone had been talking to you in person. The younger generations have started to develop this sort of text language to help get more expression into their texting so that they can get more meaning behind a small quick message.

In the past few years emojis were released and they changed the way we text forever. It can be very hard to get expressions across to someone through text even with the help of extra letters, abbreviations and all sorts of text language features. Now we have the help of emojis where if you need to show sarcasm in the text, so the person receiving the text doesn’t take it the wrong way you can add a winking face. Like you might do if you were in person. The younger generations tend to use these much more and only they really know how to use them in the correct ways. Emojis enable you to write texts without writing anything at all for example if someone sends you a text that you found funny rather than having to take the time to reply with “ha ha” you can spend a simple laughing face with takes one tap rather than 5 taps for ha ha.

In texting, we tend to use any sort of language feature that we possibly can to make our texting quicker and less effort for us. For example, we contract words a lot more than we would in normal spoken conversation, “what’re you doing” is a common contraction in text language. As some say it takes less time to type out. Some contractions we would use in speech as well like “aren’t” is one where you would not only see it most commonly in texting but spoken, it sounds normal.

Texting in most cases, is used as a quick form of communication rather than a phone call that you might not want to have to make. In most cases the key to achieving quick texts are abbreviations, abbreviations allow you to get across what your wanting to say in a smaller, quicker way. For example, Wuu2 is a common abbreviation in text language that you certainly wouldn’t say in spoken English. Wuu2 means “what you up to” people tend to use it more regularly in texting for speed. It takes away the hassle of using the whole saying making it quicker.

Texting has changed a lot for the English language since being invented. 26 years ago now, more than just a massage can be sent. Now you can send a message with slang or expression. Texting can deliver as much information or as little as you want in the same sized text message.

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  1. Amy, we discussed the plan to round up this good analysis with a conclusion that does a lot more than summarise your points. Instead the goal with the conclusion will be to explore the implications of what you’ve discovered about text language – you introduced the essay by talking about the invention of texting and the impact it has had – now it’s time to explain how language has changed and what this means in the bigger picture of human communication.

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  2. Achievement Achievement with Merit Achievement with Excellence
    Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing which develops, sustains, and structures ideas.
    Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing using language features appropriate to audience and purpose to create effects.
    Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing which develops, sustains, and structures ideas convincingly.
    Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing using language features appropriate to audience and purpose to create convincing effects.
    Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing which develops, sustains, and structures ideas effectively.
    Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing using language features appropriate to audience and purpose to command attention.

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