Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis
Student’s Name
Institution

Abstract
Professors have been explaining that texting on social media has affected students’ grammar skills. They demonstrate that the lack of punctuation and omission of words reflects on formal writing. Some universities use simple grammar tests to evaluate the grammar skills of students joining the schools. Professors note that the number of students who fail these tests is on the rise due to a rise in the use of social media usage. Additionally, the use of emotions to express their moods and feelings has also led to students using fewer words and studies show that they cannot write correct grammar. There are opposing studies that argue that omission of words and punctuation is standard in students, hence does not affect their grammar skills. However, this is not the case as these errors are reflected in academic writing which then affect careers in the end. This paper will explain how testing affects grammar skills.
Keywords: grammar skills, texting, students.
Rhetorical Analysis
Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are blamed young people’s poor grammar skills. Academics feel the need to carry out grammar tests before a child can enroll in high school or University. The results of these tests reveal that quite many students cannot write, as they tend to abbreviate their vocabulary to short words. This paper aims at discussing how texting has affected student’s grammar skills.
Hemani explains that Instead of ‘because’, it’s ‘cuz’ (Kelley, 2010).

These butchered words are not used only used casually but in formal writing. The tests given to students are general English tests that evaluate the skills of students. The fact that they fail these tests is evidence that they are not being taught grammar. Additionally, Barrett posits, “If a student has problems with articles, prepositions, verb tenses, that’s a problem” (Kelley, 2010). Using emotions and ignoring punctuation is applicable in informal settings such as social media, but can hurt a person’s career. Barrett continues to explain, “Thirty percent of students who are admitted are not able to pass at a minimum level” (Kelley, 2010). Students fail to join high school and university because they lack basic grammar skills.
However, there are oppositions of social media effect on grammar skills. Professor Wood and Ms. Warldron explained that in their study, they found evidence of omission of words and punctuation but not grammar violations. They concluded, “Overall, we found no evidence that the use of grammatical violations in text messages is consistently related to poorer grammatical or spelling skills in school students” (The Conversation, 2014). They claimed that the grammatical violation in texting of students does not have any effect on grammatical skills.
In conclusion, the fact the number of students failing grammar tests shows that texting does lead to poor grammar skills. Students lack Basic English skills such as punctuation and capitalization. It is time that academics took a stand to teach these skills to children from a young age. Poor grammar skills, in the end, affect people’s careers, as they cannot write.
References
Kelley, S. (2010 February 1). Texting, Twitter contributing to students’ poor grammar skills, profs say. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/texting-twitter-contributing-to-students-poor-grammar-skills-profs-say/article4304193/
The Conversation. (2014 June 19). Text-messaging isn’t, like, ruining young people’s grammar.” The Conversation. Retrieved https://theconversation.com/text-messaging-isnt-like-ruining-young-peoples-grammar-28145