Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 6
Posts 1 - 6

Why Kids Can't Write

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 2.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | grammar, punctuation, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, threat, word/writing
Summary | Many students struggle with writing despite various pedagogical models that have been implemented in past years to tackle that perpetual issue. This is all the more suprising considering that today's students may do moret voluntary writing than any generation before it. They text and post on social media a lot but the writing register is different there. The format's main principle is shortness so grammar, spelling, and punctuation take a back seat.
Image Description | GIF of a hand writing and a group of teachers in a workshop.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, text

What Happened to Who?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, grammar, language threat, politics, Twitter
Summary | More and more politicians have begun replacing the relative pronoun "who" with "that" in sentences like ''people that come with a legal visa and overstay''. Although some dictionaries say this is an acceptable for, the New York Times' style sheet does not condone using "that" instead of "who". It denies the mentioned persons their humanity. This trend is unsurprising considering that our communication is increasingly happening on platforms like Twitter that only allow 140 characters so that we invent loads of abbreviations like "LOL" and "TTYL".
Image Description | Artwork copying Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and a few high-profile Tweets with spelling mistakes.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter

«Nous n'avons jamais autant écrit à travers l'histoire de l'humanité»

("We have never written so much through the history of mankind")

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Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | emojis, grammar, language threat, social media, spelling, word/writing
Summary | Linguist Louise-Amélie Cougnon answers some questions related to digital language and language threat. She talks about social media language and emojis, and claims that we should not worry about the spread of digital language. Also, research does not show a link between digital language use and language impoverishment. However, it seems that pupils have lower spelling and grammar skills than before.
Image Description | N/A

Les talibans veulent en finir avec leurs «trolls»

(The Taliban want to get rid of their "trolls")

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Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 18.4.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | grammar, politeness, social media
Summary | The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is condemning certain abuses on social media. They are asking people to respect certain rules of decency and morality. They especially criticize online rudeness and poor linguistic and grammatical skills. The Taliban, who want to maintain a good level of communication, want to get rid of the "trolls"- those who do not respect an appropriate online behavior.
Image Description | N/A

Prison officer suspended amid claims he sent recently released inmate pictures of his privates in raunchy texts

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 29.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | grammar, law, sexting, spelling
Summary | A prison officer started sexting a former inmate right after she was released. He sent her pictures of his genitalia and sent sexually explicit text messages (with terrible grammar and spelling) that could not be repeated in the newspaper.The officer is suspended because relations between prison officers and inmates or released inmates are strictly forbidden due to the inherent power hierarchy and the risk of abuse of a position of power.
Image Description | Portrait of the suspended officer, the released inmate, and a photograph of the prison.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

How to Listen to Donald Trump Every Day for Years

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | grammar, language threat, politics, texting, Twitter
Summary | President Trump is widely criticized for his poor speaking abilities. His speaking style is more akin to regular talking whereas presidential speaking traditionally resembles the written language. This explains why Trump's medium of choice is Twitter or 'speeches' (too linguistically informal to be called an actual speech). Twitter, with its limitation on message length resembles texting, which as linguists have confirmed mimicks spoken language rather than formal writing.
Image Description | Donald Trump on a stage being photographed.
Image Tags | camera, male(s)

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