Use of colloquialisms in written work under the influence of social media worry teachers

Cut the ... instead of Bury the Hatchet, a Class VII student wrote in an answer script of a school where they had to fill in the blanks with suitable idioms.

The incorrect answer did not disappoint the teacher as much as the use of a colloquial phrase did.

Examples like these are plenty in not just exam papers but also in classwork and assignments, said teachers across schools in the city.

The use of colloquialisms and short forms has increasingly become more frequent in written work under the influence of social media and lack of interest in reading, said teachers.

They feel the lines between formal language and colloquialism is increasingly getting blurred.

“Students can no longer distinguish between formality and colloquialism, which is apparent in their answer scripts. This is a problem with all kinds of students, even those who are academically above average,” said Nupur Ghosh, vice principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.

Teachers said writing was increasingly becoming more informal with no respect for punctuation or paragraphs. Spellings have suffered a setback and short forms are common.

Apostrophes are not used and in a direct sentence, the close inverted commas have vanished, said teachers.

“We have always told students that when they are introducing a new idea they are supposed to start a new paragraph. But those rules are not followed in many cases. Instead, its a one long answer with no paragraphs,” said Amita Prasad, director, Indus Valley World School.

“When they writing on social media it is one long paragraph and that is, on many occasions, getting reproduced in answer scripts,” she said.

Prasad said lack of reading was one of the reason for this deterioration in writing.

“They are not reading enough. Its only when you read the formal language you understand how it is to be written,” said Prasad.

Teachers have seen that informal style of writing with short forms are being used in application letters.

“When they write formal letters to their teacher or the principal, they are casual about it and do not give much thought to how they are writing. One doesn’t write as one speaks,” said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine’s Day School Shyamnagar.

Ghosh said students tend to write that way because of lack of concentration.

“Despite penalising them in answer scripts they end up making the same mistakes because of lack of focus,” said Ghosh.

Psychotherapist Farishta Dastur Mukerji said the habit of “instant gratification” is the reason for such prolific use of short forms.

“They are used to writing shorter phrases and words in messages and get an instant response. The emphasis is on communicating their thoughts than writing full sentences and that is getting reflected in answer scripts,” said Dastur Mukerji.

She said while there is a need to reinforce “formal ways of writing” there has to be a shift in the mindset of adults too.

“Adults have to be more flexible about what they expect from the students given the age they are living in. They are used to devices and their medium of writing is gradually changing.”