:-(

I am not the best speller (thank you spell check) but this article says that examiners in Scotland are now going to accept "text-messaging short forms in school examinations", and that scares me.

This doesn't sound good. I very much dislike SMS-speak. It's looks ugly. How much nicer is "People" to "ppl", or "Great" to "gr8", or "Love" to "luv". Anyone who has got and SMS, or an email from me, or has talked to me on MSN, will know that I try and write everything right. I like the challenge of fitting everything I need to say into 160 characters without compromising my correctness. I like things to be correct.

But I don't really have a problem with other people using it in SMS or chat or email. I don't like it, however, when it moves into other things like signs or letters. Things which aren't meant to written quickly. And I don't mind it so much when it comes from young people, the ones who pioneer it and use it for convenience. But when advertisers start saying "Get U and UR friends to txt and enter to win gr8 prizes" it annoys me. It's not genuine. They're co-opting the language of the young to sell stuff back to them. They're trying to look cool, but they look like try hards.

But I think I'm just going to look old fashioned. Writing is going to evolve, and I'm going to think it looks ugly. And that's probably just the way its going to be.