When turning in college papers for online classes, it’s important to avoid text speak. Text speak is a short hand form of communication that has become popular with people that communicate over the computer or from their mobile phones as in text messaging or email. An example of text speak is the familiar abbreviation “lol,” which stands for “laughing out loud.” While it is highly unlikely that you will ever use the phrase “laughing out loud” in a college paper, if you do have to use it, be sure to spell it out instead of writing the abbreviation. Abbreviations and text speak are necessary for text messaging and similar applications where there may be charges per character or where speed is important. However, text speak does not belong in a college paper. It looks unprofessional and lazy. On top of that, many people may not be versed in the intricacies of text speak, which means that they may not be able to understand your paper. Below are ten text speak phrases to avoid:
1. “2″ instead of “to” or “too”
2. “4″ instead of “for,” “four,” or “fore”
3. “b4″ rather than “before”
4. Using “u” in place of “you”
5. Using “R” for “are”
6. Using “B” for the verb “be”
7. Using “C” in place of “see”
8. Abbreviations such as “lol” or “gtg”
9. Combination of text speak e.g. “b4″ for “before”
10. Using “8″ in words like “late,” “hate,” or “mate.” e.g. “l8″for late



Nice post. Thanks for sharing.