It's all Text Messaging's Fault

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Two apostrophes in one title? Not possible?

Well, it's obviously possible, but text messaging may mean the death of my belov'd apostrophe. That's the claim in the article Dear Apostrophe: C Ya over at the Chronicle of Higher Ed. The author, Rob Jenkins, believes that

as someone who teaches college writing to the text-messaging generation, I have observed that not only apostrophes but also capital letters have become, if not extinct, then at least increasingly conspicuous by their absence–sort of like some of my students when their essays are due.

Yikes! Not only does he dis students for bad grammar, but he also doubts their veracity when it comes to absences and due dates (c'mon you know you are at least a little guilty).

I love apostrophe's. In fact I love them so much that I use way too many of them. While Jenkins worries about capital letters and apostrophes because of text messaging, I worry about too many spaces in my writing. I find that whenever you use any piece of punctuation in a text it automatically capitalizes the next letter whether you like it or not! So I'm always adding spaces.

There are two basic rules for apostrophes. Apostrophes show possession (something one owns): The dog's tail is wagging. Apostrophes are also used in contractions (contracting two words into one): it is = it's.

What do you think? Does text messaging make you a poor writer? Has your texting habits earned you a poor score? What text messaging habits bleed over into your academic writing?

P.S. Did you spot the extra apostrophe?