How to Break the Habit of Text Slang

With text slang becoming a more common way for teenagers to communicate, it is also posing a problem in school and even in college. College professors and high school teachers once complained of students being unable to read and write. Now the complaint is that students write in text slang and can’t read anything other than text slang. Translating text slang into proper words isn’t the job of a teacher or professor; therefore students need to use proper writing skills when doing assignments. In order to break the habit of text slang, follow these suggestions.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Pen and paper, or a computer

1. When making lists or writing of any kind, force yourself to spell out the whole word and not use text slang.
2. When you catch yourself writing text slang make yourself write it all over again. This is tedious and tiresome but if you make yourself do it once or twice you will be more apt to pay attention and not write slang again.
3. When texting on your computer or on the phone, write out whole words more often than not. You don’t have to do it all the time but only most of the time to keep text slang from becoming habit.
4. Write with pen and paper or type on your computer just for the sake of staying in the habit of proper writing. If you write with pen and paper or type on the computer more often than you text, you’ll stay in the habit of writing properly even though you use text slang on your cell phone.
5. Pay attention to how you speak and how others speak. This will keep you aware of more than just speech patterns. It will also help you think of proper speech, which leads to proper writing when you do school work or any other kind of writing work.