"hi my names courtney. and 1st i would like to say thanks so much for aprovin me. :] i have this english report and we had to pick an author to write about and i chose u. do u have anything interestin bout u that i could put in there any cool facts or anything. i really want my paper to be different. if u could message me back today that would be great thanks so much bye"
This is very typical of the email I get. Sadly. (edited to add: Courtney claims to be a high school freshman on her page.)
My inclination is to hit the delete key. My strong-worded "I won't do your homework" policy is everywhere. With just the tiniest amount of effort, the student can find all kinds of information about me - like on my website.
And for the record - the use of "u" for "you" and the total disregard for capitalization and punctuation (fine for texting friends, but not fine in this context), not to mention the other grammar errors - make my teeth hurt.
What do you think about this? Am I being appallingly old-fashioned and cranky? If this were your student, how would you want me to respond? I am not looking to make Courtney feel stupid or ignorant, but I want to be the village auntie and tell her it is time to raise her standards.
Or I could just hit the delete key.
What do you think?
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Comments
On the other hand, it could be that this is the first time Courtney has written to an author and she is just trying to find her way. I think her teacher will take care of the punctuation issue. In the meantime, I would probably just send her a link to your website so she can do a little investigating on her own.
Edited at 2007-11-26 07:44 pm (UTC)
Although it's a national epidemic, I can only speak for the New York City public school system when I say that most kids graduate with extremely lacking reading and writing skills. It's unacceptable that so many kids hate reading or have never even read a book. When I was a science teacher, several of my students told me that my book was the first one they'd ever read. Not only do my teeth hurt over that, but my heart hurts, too.
Ugh. Sorry, your post just grated on me...
I wonder if you wrote back that you're not sure what she's asking, but if she were to rewrite her post in standard English so that you could follow it, you'd be glad to help. You could jokingly blame it on being old and cranky--or the village auntie.
I'm not entirely comfortable with what I just suggested, but I think from your place of relative celebrity/popularity, you're in a unique place to offer constructive criticism in a way that might have some impact.
But this (mis)use of language is terrifying! What is to be done?
1) You won't do her homework for her (but link to your website)
2) The way that she wrote to you was not appropriate because it was basically a professional communication. It's sad but a lot of students now don't know the difference between TXTing their friends and writing something to someone they don't know.
3) She was asking a favor, and to ask that you 'message back today' when you don't even know her was also inappropriate.
That being said, her message says that she chose to write about you, not that you were assigned to her as a topic, so she's probably a fan and maybe even an aspiring (very young) writer herself. With a push in the right direction, maybe she'll figure it out.
Or maybe I'm being too optimistic...
The message did make me cringe, and I often get annoyed at kids on Yahoo! answers for asking homework questions in that manner, but if no one ever lets them know it isn't right in a supportive way, they won't ever learn. If you don't respond at all, she probably won't have any idea why and will continue to write like in that manner.
...Or maybe you could ask her for her English teacher's email directly and let the teacher know just what happened. Perhaps it would trigger a long study on grammar and how to write a business letter! ;)
Or to just keep a form letter typed up on your laptop you can copy/paste in response to that kind of question. "Thank you for your interest, but I will not do your homework for you, nor do I respond to messages that are not written in a professional manner" or something like that. (This might just be my background in online customer service coming through, though!)
You might want to take the opportunity to encourage capitalization, the full and proper spelling of words, and punctuation, and point out that in the real world, people still expect proper communication.
Sigh. She has to learn sometime.
Alas, I strongly suspect that her sloppy spelling is not just a reflection of the way she talks to her friends in chat, but indicates the approach she takes to her schoolwork in general. Heaven knows my IM messages to friends are full of typos and abbreviations and acronyms, but writing to someone I don't know personally in that format -- especially to make a request -- is just Not Right.
The grammar and spelling (lack thereof), the assumptions that you have nothing better to do in your life than write an IMMEDIATE answer to her query - when clearly she has left it to the last minute to write the paper. Not to mention the blatant ignoring of the "I will not do your homework for you" policy.
Still, I wouldn't just hit delete. At the very least, just send her the link to your web site, and tell her that she can get all the info you are willing to make public there.
I'm not sure how to point out her butchery of the English language without sounding snarky. But I'm sure you make a better village auntie than I do :-)
We're constantly trying to teach kids that writing is communication and its metric is effectiveness. Courtney's probably heard that a zillion times from her teachers... and here she is actually trying to communicate a message that is presumably of real importance to her. But her communication wasn't effective -- because it lacked research, used the wrong tone for the audience, and failed to respect the reader by checking mechanics. This might be the best writing lesson she'll ever receive... especially coming from a total famous person rock star, also a writer.
Seriously, though, this is a teachable moment. Go for it.
More seriously, there's an author whose blog I won't read because she won't capitalize.
Even more seriously, I teach online classes, and I'm always stunned when college juniors and seniors (who are future teachers) submit work written like the email you received. I won't read or grade it, but I'm still stunned.
Even experts say that email has a more "relaxed" feel than a formal letter. If that is true, I would argue that MySpaace messages have an even more "relaxed" feel than email.
That being said, I do take exception to Courtney's terrible smiley face. I mean, it doesn't have any nose and the boxiness of the smile reminds me more of a robot than a smile!
I don't know, either. I got another one the same week and I've focused on content by replying that if they ask something specific I can reply. I've yet to comment on the text message speak. I think that's what it is...MySpace message are like text messages to them and it's shorthand. When I get mail from teens in my regular email, there are a lot more complete sentences.
When she's talking to her friends, or to people she has *seen* to type lyk dis, then that's... well, I hesitate to say appropriate, but at least not evil.
But when talking to somebody she doesn't know, to ask for a favor? Incredibly disrespectful. Start with the more
correctformal register first, then work your way down to meet the person you're talking with. It's not just for speech.Do you usually reply to requests for information? You could direct her to your website or something but if you don't normally do that then I wouldn't respond.
I don't think I'd hit the delete key just yet. I'd save it and use it as an anecdotal moment when addressing audiences (particularly high school audiences) in your travels. It is sad to see language so unappreciated when it has the capacity to be so enthralling, yet it is a fact in the world in which we all live. Perhaps you have been given a chance to give this incident a new and wonderful direction.
Steve Hargrove, Librarian, Baltimore County Public Library
And god forbid she tries to enter the employment market sending out emails that way.
As someone who has taught (college) students - and sadly - did receive emails much as above (despite having standards outlined in the syllabus) - I know how I would respond as a teacher. And that would be to tell her to rephrase the email as something that resembles english - then when she does, thank her for her interest - and point her to the information on your website.
But sadly, as someone who is not her teacher; and is quite possibly someone she looks up to, the line is more difficult.
I would hit delete.
Seriously. And if she writes again, nicely say you couldn't understand what she wanted and direct her to your website for further information.
Then again, its late in the afternoon, and maybe I need more coffee.....