Texting and the Modern Novel

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

Use of “Like” and How To Remove

The first critique is back from one of my proof-readers, and they loved it for all the reasons I wanted them to love it, but their only complaint was that I used the “like” simile so much that it became cumbersome and broke up the flow.  It seems that I use like followed by a simile