Effect of Sms Texting on Writing Skills of University Level Students in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP)

Abstract

The aim of this research is to show the effect of SMS texting on writing skills of university level students. The frequent use of text messaging has a significant negative impact on writing. Using the frame work of Cultivation theory developed by George Gerbner in late 1960s, quantitative data was gathered from 20 students from Peshawar University, fourteen students from Bacha Khan University Charsadda, fourteen students from Islamia College University Peshawar and seven students from Abdul-Wali-Khan University Mardan. The questionnaire has ten closed ended questions on different factors of writing including “vocabulary”, “spelling”, “punctuation”, “grammatical ability”, “sentence construction” and use of “short forms”. All of these were analyzed using a pie-chart. The data and information that were gathered using a close-ended questionnaire is accurately described using the percentage approach and pie-chart. The results demonstrate that students mentioned all the factors which are affecting their writing skills.