IM Shorthand Slips Off Computer Screens And Into Schoolwork

Bridget Tomich, an English teacher at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington County, said she has begun to pick up some of the shorthand and can now tell her LOLs (laugh out loud) from her TTYLs. She said her students get a kick out of being able to teach her for a change.

Still, some academics fret that the shorthand will hurt students' ability to write and communicate.

"The drawback of text messaging is that most services limit the messages to 30 words, and the ingenious young writers using that service have created symbols and abbreviations that lead to a very cryptic method of communication that does not lend itself to being transferred to academic writing," said John Briggs, a professor of English at the University of California at Riverside, who heads the university's entry-level writing program for students.

But others see "teachable moments" in the new lingo. In fact, the National Council of Teachers of English, in a partnership with the International Reading Association, includes an outline on how to use IM and other forms of electronic communication on a Web site of lessons it maintains for educators across the country.

"In some ways, [IM] is an English teacher's dream because it's using writing for a real purpose, towards a real audience, and that's something we always struggle with in a classroom," said Leila Christenbury, the council's past president and a professor of English education at Virginia Commonwealth University.

A few years ago, after several weeks of grading papers filled with IM-speak and other jargon, Goodman took matters into her own hands.

When the students showed up for class the following day, she asked them to read a paragraph she had written using many of the same phrases they used in their papers.

"chaucer's the canterbury tales r a scathing attack on the catholic church of the late 1300s . . . he uses the descriptions of many pilgrims (including several very sketchy religious dawgs) 2 deliver a veiled message about the mad corruption he like saw in the church the greed that some of his characters have 4 money, represents like the use of church scratch 2 build some pretty tight cathedrals."

She said they laughed but understood her point.

Edward Hardin, who works in test development for the College Board, which administers the SAT and AP exams, said that although some students slip an occasional IM-ism into an essay, the mistake he most often sees these days is students who confuse the word ludicrous -- causing laughter because of absurdity -- with Ludacris, the rapper.

"The guy has redefined the spelling of that word," Hardin said with a chuckle.