Abstract:
Individually, 50 university students sent two text messages, one with an alphanumeric multi-press keypad mobile phone and another with a full QWERTY keypad smartphone (i.e., Apple iPhone 4). The 100 text messages were examined and all occurrences of punctuation marks and patterns of capitalization were tallied. Paired sample t-tests compared the mean number of: 1) total punctuation marks, 2) each specific punctuation mark, 3) capital letters and 4) omission of required capital letters (e.g., proper nouns) across the corpora of text messages sent with the two types of mobile phones.The mean number of words used in the 50 smartphone messages was 43.06, the shortest message was 18 words and the longest message was 73 words. Whereas for multi-press text messages, the mean number of words was 32.00, the shortest message was 12 words and the longest message was 56 words. T-tests established that differences in text message length did not occur by chance. Statistically significant, the mean number of punctuation marks per smartphone text message was 6.60 while the mean number of punctuation marks per alphanumeric mobile phone text message was 4.56. Two specific types of punctuation marks were significantly more likely to occur in text messages sent from the smartphone rather than the alphanumeric mobile phone. On average, each smartphone text message contained 1.90 commas while each alphanumeric text message contained 1.28 commas. On average, each smartphone text message contained 1.32 question marks while each alphanumeric text message contained 0.80 question marks. No other comparisons of mean number of punctuation marks in text messages sent on alphanumeric mobile phone versus a full QWERTY keypad smartphone reached significance. Patterns of capitalization differed significantly across text messages sent with an alphanumeric mobile phone versus full QWERTY keypad smartphone. On average, each smartphone text message contained 1.82 appropriate capital letters while each alphanumeric text message contained 3.72 appropriate capital letters. On average, each smartphone text message omitted 4.92 required capital letters while each alphanumeric text message omitted 2.34 capital letters. Results suggest that the characteristics of mobile phones affect the linguistic features of text messages. Analysis of patterns of punctuation and capitalization in text messages composed on two different handsets revealed that this cohort of young adults was playfully manipulating language to sustain interesting conversations with communication partners. The shift from conventional literacy practices towards new literacies is particularly evident in the communication behaviors of university students. Implications for higher education include: 1) validating students' literacy skills, 2) fostering global communication skills and 3) using communication technologies to facilitate learning