VikramNigam

Writing2
WritingHabitsAnalysis
Inrecentyearstheamountofwritingperformedusingelectronicdeviceshas
grownexponentially,andinterestintextmessagingasamediumhasgrownaswell.
Thoughthereisprolificliteratureontextmessaginganditseffectsonotherwriting,
quantitativeanalysesoftextmessagingtrendsarefairlyscarce.Anexaminationof
academicliteratureonthetopicbeginstobuildabiggerpictureideaoftextingasa
genreandalanguage,withspecificdefiningcharacteristics.Thoughmanybelievethat
textinghasanegativeeffectononesoverallwritingability,thereareseveraltangible
benefitstotheconvenienceandbrevityoftextmessaging.Throughanalysisofseveral
studiesontextmessagingaswellasanalysisofmypersonalwritinglogdata,Iwill
definemywritinghabitsandtendenciesandidentifytheroleandeffectsoftext
messaginginmylife.
InthearticleDoesTextingAffectWriting?,MichaelaCullingtoninvestigatedthe
effectsoftextmessagefrequencyonstudentsacademicwritingabilities.Shesitesa
commoncounterargumenttoherstudy,thattextingdegenerateswritingskillsand
composition.Inadditiontheprevalenceofabbreviationsandsymboliccommunicationin
textingistheorizedbysometodamagestudentsabilitiestoconveyinformation
thoroughlyandarticulately.Sheconcludes,Infact,itseemslikelythattextinghasno
significanteffectonstudentwriting.Shegoesontotheorizethattextingrepresentsan
independentwritinglanguageandoffersstudentsaseparateoutletforcreativity.

CrispinThurlowandMichellePoffbuildontheideabydefiningtextmessagingas
agenre.InthearticleTextMessagingheydefinethemaximsofthegenreas:(1)
brevityandspeed(2)paralinguisticrestitutionand,(3)phonologicalapproximation.
Paralinguisticrestitutionisdefinedinthearticleastheabilitytoconveymorethanwould
bepossibleinformalwritingthroughtheuseofdevicessuchasemoticons.This
definitionofthegenrealignswithCullingtonstheorythattextingcouldpotentiallyboost
creativityinwriting.Inadditionphoneticapproximation,ortheabilitytoapproximate
largerwordswithshortsymbolsorabbreviations,boostsparalinguisticrestitutionby
allowingcertainmoodstobeconveyed.Anexamplegiveninthetextisabbreviating
seeyoulaterasculata.Thoughthearticleacknowledgesthecounterargumentthat
thistypeofapproximationdegeneratesgrammarorincreaseserror,theauthors
concludethattextingasanindependentgenreplaysavitalroleinmodernsociety.
Theliteratureontextmessagingidentifiesdistinctcharacteristicsofthegenre
andthisstudywillusethesecharacteristicsasmetricstounderstandmywritinghabits
andtoidentifydistinctpatternsinmywriting.Inordertofocusthecodingofthe5days
ofwritinglogdata,Iloggedeachandeverytextmessagewithintheperiod.Ithencoded
forbrevity,useofphonologicalapproximation,audienceanderror.Thisstudywill
attempttodefinewritinghabitsthroughthesefourcodingmethods.Initiallyadheringto
ProfessorTylerBransonswritinglogtemplate,Igraduallynarrowedmyscopetofocus
moreonaudienceasitrelatestoothercharacteristicsofthewritingandattemptedto
identifypatterns.Inordertocategorizemessagesbasedonaudience,Idefinedfour
groups.Family,GoodFriends,CloseAcquaintances,AndthoseIhadrecentlymet.In

additionIseparatedthetextmessagesbasedonwordlengthinordertocodefor
brevity.Finally,foreachwritinglog,Iwentbackandrecordedeachinstanceof
phonologicalapproximationanderror,includingnumbersandacronymsfor
approximation,andbothspellingandgrammarerrors.Ithenshiftedmyfocus
exclusivelytotextmessages,realizingthatthevastmajorityofmydaytodaywritingis
doneintheformofatextmessage.Endedupsending47textmessagesduringthat
periodandIloggedfeaturesofeach.Inordertoproducethemostinformativeresults,I
collectedandgraphedtrendsinerror,approximationandbrevity.Ithenrelated
audiencetoeachofthesemetricstoidentifyhowmywritinghabitsdifferbasedon
audience.Iwasimmediatelyabletoidentifytrendsbasedonaudience,andrelatingthis
toeachothermetricprovidedfurtherinsight.

Audience

Numberofmessages

Family

10

GoodFriend

26

CloseAcquaintance

Recentlymet

Duringthisstudy,theresultsshowedsomeverydistinctwritingtrendsand
patterns.Primarily,thestudyrevealedthatthevastmajorityofmywritingisdoneto
closefriendswithfamilyadistantsecond.Analyzingwordcountasitrelatesto

audienceclearlyshowedthatsomeaudiencegroupsgethigherprioritythanothers
acrosstheboard.Inaddition,itshowedthat12Wordtextmessagesareuniqueinthat
familyisprioritizedlessthancloseacquaintanceswhichisnotthecasewiththeother
categoriesofmessagelength,makingitauniqueoutlier.Thisdataisrepresentedinthe
graphbelow.

Inadditionthestudyproducedacleartrendinerror.Thegraphbelowshows
instancesoferrorinmessageastheyrelatetoaudiencetypeaswellastotalmessages.
Thegraphrevealsthatamuchhigherpercentageofmessagestoclosefriendscontain
error,whereasfamilyandrecentlymetindividualshaveasignificantlylowrateoferror.


Asimilaranalysisofmyuseofphonologicalapproximationprovidedtheresults
showninthegraphbelow.Adistinctpatternofphonologicalapproximationemerges
whichseemstoparalleltherelativeformalityofeachaudience.Whenreorganizingthe
audiencecategoriesinorderfromleasttomostformal,acleardownwardstrendin
phonologicalapproximationcanbeobserved,asshowninthegraphbelow.

Theresultsofthisstudyhaveunearthedseveralobservablepatternsinmy
writing.Athoroughanalysisoftheresultswillshowthataudiencetypeisbyfarthemost
influentialforceonthestyleofmywriting.Theinitialanalysisconductedidentifieda
trendintypicalmessagelengthbasedonaudiencecategory.Thisanalysisrevealed
thatmessagesofbetween2and10wordsweremostcommonacrosstheboardexcept
for12wordmessagestoclosefriends.ThisshowsthatIhaveatendencytotryto
makethemessageslongerifpossibleunlessmyaudienceconsistsofthepeoplewho
knowmebest.Oftenwithclosefriends12wordscanconveyasmuchasmanymore
wouldtoastranger.Inadditiontherewasalowernumberofmessagesover5words
outofthetotalnumbertoclosefriendsascomparedtotheotheraudiencegroups.This
analysisalsorevealsthat25wordmessagesdominatemywritingasbothlongerand
shortermessagestendtobemuchlessfrequent.Thisshowsthatthereisadistinct
messagelengthwhichmywritingtendstowards,andthisisconcurrentwithThurlowe
andPoffsgenredefiningmaximofbrevity.
Furtherobservationoferrorinmywritingdemonstratedanotherclearoutlier,but
thistimebasedonaudiencegroup.Ananalysisoferrorrevealedthatmyfrequencyof
errorismuchhigheramongthoseIamverycloseto.Interestingly,thoughthismaybe
becauseofthegreateraveragelengthofeachmessage,themessagessenttofamily
alsohadahigherinstanceoferror.Alongwithincreasedmessagelength,thiscanbe
attributedtothefactthatfamily,likeclosefriends,isconsideredtobeafairlyinformal
andverypersonalaudience.Itislikelythaterrorgoesupinconjunctionwithhowsecure
theauthorfeelswithaninformalaudience,asthistypeofrelationshipencouragesthe

freeflowofideaswithoutrestriction.Reorganizingtheaudiencegroupsinorderof
formalityrevealedanadditionalpatternbasedonmyuseofphonologicalapproximation.
AgainsupportingtheclaimsofCrispinandThurlowe,phoneticapproximationhas
provedtobeanintegralpartofmywritinghabits,howeveronlywhenconcerning
specificaudiencegroups.Interestingly,Ionlyusedphonologicalapproximationswhen
communicatingwithgoodfriendsorcloseacquaintances.Thisisfairlystraightforwardto
explainasphonologicalapproximationsaretypicallyseenasasignofextreme
informality.Asaresultitfeelsalmostdisrespectfultousethisdevicewithanyaudience
butthemostintimate.Thoughthereareprobablyseveralpeoplewhousethisdevice
withfamilyaswell,asIhavenoimmediatefamilyinmyagegroup(withinthecountry),I
wouldprobablyconveyimmaturitytobothyoungerandolderfamilymemberswiththis
deviceand,assuch,Iavoiditaltogether.
Thesetrendscanbewovetogethertocreatealargerideaofmyhabitsasa
writerandhowmystylechangesbasedonaudience.Withthediscoveryofsucha
drasticcorrelationbetweenaudienceandwritinghabits,furtherresearchcouldshow
thattherearedistinctsubtypeswithintheaudiencegroupsIdefined.Thereareseveral
othermetricsbywhichtomeasureaudiencewhichIwouldbeparticularlyinterestedin
applyingtothisstudy,includinggenderandageoftheaudience,oranyothersubtype
ofaudience.Thisstudyrevealedtheplausibilityofminutedifferencesinwritingthatmay
beobservableastrendsbasedonaudiencecharacteristics.Inordertoconducta
completeanalysisonpersonalwriting,Iwouldhavetoadditionallyanalyzewriting
intendedtobereadbymyselfatalatertime.UnfortunatelyasIdidnottakeany

personalnotesduringthefivedayperiodofmywritinglog,myselfisanaudience
categorywhichIwasunabletoanalyze.Theresultsofthisstudywouldindicatethat
writingintendedformyselfbearssimilardistinctionsfromtherestandshouldfit
somewhereonthespectrumofformalityandbrevitywithalloftheotheraudience
groups.InadditionIwouldbeinterestedtoknowwhatotherstudentswritingwould
revealifcodedandanalyzedusingmymethods.Untilthesestudiescanbeconducted,
allIcandoextrapolatemyownresultstotherelationshipbetweenauthorandaudience
asawhole.Inconclusion,thisstudyhasrevealedthatanauthorsrelationshipwiththeir
intendedreaderhasaprofoundconsciousandsubconsciouseffectonthestyleof
writingproducedbytheauthor,whichcanbeobservedasdistinctcommontrendsand
patternsinwritingcharacteristicswiththeexceptionofanoccasionaloutlier.

Bibliography
1. Cullington,Michaela.DoesTextingAffectWriting?Cullington2015.W.W.Norton,18
Apr.2010.Web.
2. "TextMessaging."Thurlowpoff.MoutonDeGruyter,2011.Web.