Txtng: The Gr8 Db8

This is a clear, funny and informative book about the text messaging phenomenon. Crystal deals in facts rather than prejudices, and provides an accessible guide to what is really known about texting and its educational impact. The parts I found most interesting were the details on how texting works in languages other than English. The most important is probably the concluding chapter making the case that with good teaching, far from reducing literacy, texting is actually likely to cause school students to do more writing, reflect more on how they write, and become generally more able to use language in appropriate and flexible ways. Before writing yetanother scare story about texting, journalists and educators should read this book.

When a 80 year old lady said that in order to keep in contact with her, I at 82 had to learn to text on my cell phone. So I looked for a book about texting on Amazon and what did I get? Txting The gr8 db8, by David Crystal. I wont say I got all the answers I wanted, but it did help some with the crazy shortcuts! There is nothing like motivation by a beautiful woman to spur a male into the mysteries of texting! However, I found that just answering inviting texts from a lady are the best motivation. If you want the history of texting get this book!

This book is easy, enjoyable reading. I loved it! It described me to the T. I could relate it to it at a very personal level. I resisted texting, in fact I was dead set against it, but now I don't see how I got along without it!David Crystal takes us through the steps of how we resist change, especially language change. Texting has gotten a bad rap, when in fact it is a different way of communicating. We can't even say it is new, but rather different.

Well written and easily comprehensible. There is a certain bias in favour of txt-language, but it is none the less a good introduction to the different views on and types of txt-language.

David Crystal, an extensively published linguist, has written a sane, balanced account of the txtng phenomenon. He cites data, both contemporary and historical, to place txtng in a realistic context. His linguistic sophistication and extensive knowledge of language enables him to provide an insightful analysis. I am so glad he has brought his expert perspective to this most fascinating activity.

It's kinda like a new. Pretty good I think.Only it takes toooo long time to get there, like two weeks.

Good book

We were required to select a book for a graduate course and I am glad I picked this one. While it is currently out of date with the current year, looking at the literature, information and how diverse language really can be was astounding.

The problem with teaching 'Language and Technology' at A level is that the technology and our interaction with it is changing so fast that there is virtually no established texts that are available for the general reader. Google Scholar is all very well, but it takes hours of searching to find only abstracts of academic papers. So, hats off to Crystal then, who has collated much of the research from the past ten years and synthesised it down into a very readable resource for enjoyable reading and also for giving us teachers something solid to base our lessons on rather than something published six or seven years ago that is now as redundant as a Betamax copy of Jaws.Crystal is as usual authorative, engaging and here is certainly going out on a limb and offering a coherent and well argued case that texting is an interesting, positive influence on our beautiful language and provides heaps of evidence as to why John Humphrys et al are bleating old has beens who speak from a position of delicious ignorance.Buy this for fun and buy it so you can shut people up when they start talking rubbish. Oh yes, and as a great teaching aid.

David Crystal is a well respected semiotician and this book is perfect for reading for those doom-mongers who are convinced that the SMS is the end of civilisation - as was TV, rock'n'roll and probably even Radio 4 when it first started. Crystal sets SMS in its linguistic historical setting recounting how abbreviations, shortening of words and slang are not new - even that Stratford chappie used to do it! Apart from the solid scholarship the book is written is an accessibly form and gives some wonderful examples of the what txng can do as a literary genre in its own right - see the section on SMS poetry.

I read this book for academic reasons for my job, but found myself personally interested in the phenomena of texting and messaging which is all around us today. As a teacher, I had thought that texting and internet searching had improved literacy and understanding of language rather than increasing illiteracy, and i was pleased to have this observation confirmed. Lots of little snippets, such as the grammar error 'would of' instead of would have, used by the poet Keats, not the fault therefore of texting, although we see here that the way texters play with words and sentences can be similar to how poets manipulate language.

What a clever man. As always this book is written with a very experienced, open and ever inquiring mind, which is why his books never fail to please.

Helpful book to read for my linguistic and language course. Gives you a good understanding on texting as its own language and adaptions and why we now use it in our everyday conversations