David Crystal’s free essay sample

David Crystal’s â€Å"2b or Not 2b? † is an interesting topic and a global wide well known subject. As most people are guilty of text messaging not everyone breaks the rules of the English language. This controversial material has many side and views. In the beginning of the essay the author emphasizes how in a newspaper article written by John Humphry there is a disapproval and disgust of text message â€Å"they are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary† (335). In the second paragraph he uses John Sutherland of University College London’s writing as a support in the disapproval of texting with the following statement â€Å"bleak, bald, sad shorthand. Drab shrinktalk†¦Linguistically it’s all pig’s ear†¦ (I)t makes dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness. Texting is penmanship for illiterates† (335). So far I can sympathize with what the author is trying to convey with the above statements. We will write a custom essay sample on David Crystal’s or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But he has not given any information to back up his argument in how texting is spoiling the English language. The source the author has used to make this argument does not make the antecedent creditable to make his premises valid. Next, the author talks about the evolution of technology. People were afraid of the advance technology has made from printing newspaper to telephones, digital and SMS. He affirms that nothing has been more vividly arousing than text messaging. Text message has opened new doors to the use of language. As most of the world seems to enjoy text messaging his statement stands. Even when breaking the rules of the language the author insists that text messaging is mind opening, entertaining and a new way to communicate. He presented a few convincing life situation examples. Tmobile had a contest for the best poetry to celebrate World Poetry day the two finalists had different approach to the art of orthography; one presented his poetry in standard orthography and the other runner up in textspeak. Yoshi a prosperous novelist writer in Japan, writers his entire novel in textspeak and send it as a text message to reach the reader. Yoshi gets the reader involved on how the novel should end. In china there is also a mobile literature channel. The writer Xuan Huang tells a love story in 15chapters, only one chapter a day via text message. Another writer by the name of Hannu Luntiala also published 332 page stories in a form of SMS massage. The statements the author has mentioned about text messaging opening doors, have me convinced that text messaging have expanded in many horizons. Crystal gives a bit of history on the topic of the developmental phenomenon of text message. He also provides some numerical statistics on the popularization of texting. â€Å"In the UK, in 2001, 12. 2 billion text messages were sent. This had doubled by 2004, and was forecast to be 45 billion in 2007. on Christmas Day alone 2006, over 205 million texts went out. World figures went from 17 billion in 2000 to 250 billion in 2001. They passed a trillion in 2005. Text messaging generated around $70 billion in 2005. That’s more than three times as much as all Hollywood box office returns that year† (336). These numbers seems to be very believable but Crystal fails to prove evidence of his statics. Readers may be skeptical of the information provided. The author may possess credibility as a writer but in order to forecast statics some requirements must be fulfilled such as: collecting data and research, which at this point was not provided to the reader. According to Crystal, the older and more conservative one is, the less likely they are to modify orthography when texting. In the other hand, the younger crowd is more prone to use much more rebuses and abbreviations when textings. A young kid wrote a school essay using textspeak, the teacher was unable to read it. The work was unable to be traced back to the writer. The paper seemed to be bogus. This statement appears to be irrelevant to the topic of text messaging, writing an essay and texting is not the same. Perhaps the youngster was not a literate child. Crystal argue that much of what is used in texting have been used some time before, many years ago. And each person has their own unique style of sending text messages. His examples are acceptable and he make an excellent point. â€Å"IOU is known from 1618. SWALK sealed with a loving kiss† (339). â€Å"Eric Parthridge published his Dictionary of Abbreviation in 1942, therefore, abbreviations of words are not novelties. Moreover the author made a point in pointing out one of the advantage of having a unique style when texting. A man was found guilty and convicted of a murder charge, all thanks to a text message evidence that point out he was the person sending the text message, instead of someone else, as he told the police. His particular way of texting was the evidence to find him guilty. Overall the author have defended and showed why text message can be of a positive and beneficial effect to society. One drawback was the essay was not well organized. The author went from present to past and vise verse, it made a little confusing. The audience intended for the essay is everyone who opposes to text messaging and who thinks that text message is ruining the English Language.