An Irish education commission conducted the study, but it's results no doubt ring true here in the United States as well, where text messaging among teens has become more popular than ever. Although a recent Cingular commercial pokes fun at the abbreviations and phrases used by serious texters, the recent report claims texting language is affecting writing standards-- causing students to use phonetic spelling and lack of punctuation in their written work. "LOL-- laugh out loud, I use that one a lot, or love you with a little heart...when I'm writing a research paper I'll accidentally abbreviate a lot and I get points counted off for that. I think it really does affect our english," says high school student Meaghan Luther. Local students like Luther admit they often have to scan their writing for text message language. "I have to think about it more now, like, oh yeah, and go back and erase it and remember that's not how you do it," says Caitlin Craft, a senior. "It's a way to get it done faster but then we also have to go back and check ourselves and double check to make sure we didn't leave those things in there," student Seth Schader says.
