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If you were to ask an elderly person to read an IM conversation between two
16 year old kids, do you think they would understand it? With all the short
versions like BRB, LOL, LMFAO and many others, does this abbreviated version
of our language affect our grammar when it comes to writing something
serious or intelligent? I think so.

After posting articles on this blog and reading many other blogs, it has an
effect on the way we convey information. Try this: write to your parents the
way you would write, “hello,” or “goodbye,” to a friend on IM. It
probably looks much different than the way you would write to your parents.
My aunt talks to her son predominately over IM. Would you believe that she
has a problem when it comes to her job, mixing IM lingo into her reports? I
have that problem now. While growing up IM was, and still is, one of the
easiest ways to stay in touch with family and friends.

While writing posts I have a hard time with grammar. When you use a certain
style of writing so much it’s hard to change. Now with writing everyday
and trying to sound somewhat intelligent on this blog, I have made a choice
to be as grammatically correct. I will step you through week by week, on how
I am trying to become a better writer. My first step is to start reading
more books and start writing in IM chat better. Then we will take it from
there. I may go to some technical writing courses. This by far is my
biggest weakness. My IM lingo is going to ch8ng!
Here is an interesting fact: the last sentence above this with the word
“ch4ng”, guess what? The spell checker totally missed it. That’s funny.
If anyone has suggestions on how to become a better writer I would love to
hear them. Oh, don’t forget to subscribe to this blog if you would like
to keep up with this.