My students text more than they speak or write. The biggest problem I have is getting my students to write formally without using the “texting language” that has somehow devoured their ability to write professionally.
In a recent TED talk, John McWhorter, a linguistics professor at Columbia University stated that texting cannot be considered written language because it more closely resembles the spoken word. David Crystal also wrote a fantastic article about the culture of texting, of its pros and cons, and its impact on the culture. There is also this story about how to write an entire novel on Twitter. The wheels began turning in my mind about what this could mean for dialogue in fiction or what this means for our future writers who want to capture the culture of texting in their novels.
Could it be that we could be seeing these kinds of dialogue passages in future novels?
“U coming 2 the game?”
“No lol. got to have a 121 with mom”
“2mi”
“no no lol just business”
“l8r”
If this happens, there needs to be a distinction that it is not speech. I wonder what kind of conventions will be invented to insure that the reader doesn’t think it is speech? Perhaps it could be placed in italics. I am debating using a couple of texting passages in my latest WIP, The Painful Best. Let’s face it, I text my wife about as much as I talk to her in person. Why not capture that culture in a novel?
Related articles
- Don’t U Dis Txtspeak; It’s a “Linguistic Miracle,” Says Professor (allthingsd.com)
- Are Text Messages Destroying The Language? New Infographic by MapsofWorld.com (prweb.com)
- Texting Could Make You Smarter (ubergizmo.com)
Writing Is Hard Work 
I have only read one book with text dialogue and it was in italics. I don’t know if I could stand chat speak in a novel though. Ugh. I don’t text that way and I don’t know anyone who does. No offends if you do though. 🙂
Interesting question and timely, at least for me. I am editing a cyber-crime novel – 3rd revision almost finished – and have a similar situation: novel is set around an online fantasy game so some of the conversations are in-game chat, and text used is similar to texting. Where it is a conversation in chat I have treated it as dialogue. But when it is in-game messages or emails I use italics.
About to have the manuscript edited – will be interesting to see what the editor says.