Jeremy Harmer in the book “How to Teach Writing” states: “Language is constantly evolving, and so we must begin to accept - and even teach – the shortened forms of communication that are used with technology. This language may contain abbreviations, symbols (emoticons) and even untraditional grammar and punctuation, which would be considered “errors” in many classrooms. We accept different forms of oral communication without penalty … we should do the same with written communication.”
I do not have an exact opinion on this statement. Although it could have made many things simpler for writers, I cannot say: “Yes, let’s do the things easier and be more tolerant to writing errors.” In the process of writing we cannot use gestures and intonations or repeat words, or simply point out on the object – the actions that are so helpful in conversation. So, there is a chance for the reader to misunderstand the idea of written work, if there are too many errors. Also, it is not always true that we accept different forms of oral communication without penalty. I believe for each type of writing, as for speaking, there is its own place and time. The language and the vocabulary that we use in everyday life, when talking to our friends or writing them letters, or chatting and messaging via internet, is not acceptable during university class discussions or political debates, or when writing an academic piece of work. In the first case, the mistakes might be acceptable, whereas, in the second, they can be inexcusable. Taking into consideration ESL students, we should be tolerant to their written errors as much as possible. Excessive error corrections can frighten students from the writing process and from building written communication fluency.
Considering mentioned above, I think, we should learn and teach others to the various ways of language use, and sometimes and in some cases be tolerant to the written mistakes.
