Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Kids Improve Writing Online

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the home-skuling dept.

aelfric35 writes "Ben Franklin advised his son not to allow schooling to interfere with his education. Even though many have disparaged the effects of IM on schoolchildrens' prose, some kids are actually becoming better writers by participating in online communities. Henry Jenkins writes in MIT's Technology Review about how some kids are gaining writing and editorial experience far beyond what their schools can offer by participating in Harry Potter fan fiction forums (sorry about the alliteration)."

7 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Y3aH It'S Tru3 by nil5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I LeArN3d 4ll mah SkillZ OnliNe. it iz teh b3sT wAy d00d!!!

    1. Re:Y3aH It'S Tru3 by Kelerain · · Score: 5, Funny

      For those than don't speak 1337:

      counterstrike grammatical academy

      class of 2001

      C 0 |_| |\| 7 3 |2 5 7 |2 1 | 3
      c o u n t e r s t r i k e

      6 |2 4 /\/\ /\/\ 4 7 1 ( 4 |_
      g r a m m a t i c a l

      4 ( 4 |)3 /\/\ '/
      a c a d e m y

      ( |_ 4 5 5 0' 2 | 1
      c l a s s of (o') 2 00 1

      Note the K in counterstrike is only a | . I would guess it was intented to be a |

      It took me around 10 seconds to read that. I'm not sure if I should be proud or hang myself.

      This lesson in leet speak brought to you by the letter 3.

  2. porn stories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, I can remember it like it was yesterday... Back in the day, downloading erotic stories from BBS's, printing them on the trusty old Epson dot-matrix, and reading them before going to bed. Porn has improved my reading skills and my imagination.

    Even today, I'm sure it still has the effect of improving hand-eye coordination and strengthening my forearms.

    Three cheers for porn!

  3. Re: Writing better? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny


    > When I see "loose" being used in place of "lose", my blood starts boiling.

    Me to.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  4. Re:Schooling interfere with education? by NonSequor · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Every valid combination of words in the English language has been attributed to Mark Twain at some point in time."

    --Mark Twain

    --
    My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
  5. Re:As a homeschooler... by irokitt · · Score: 5, Funny

    I get my interpersonal skills through Slashdot, you insensitive clod!

    Seriously though, why do people think home schoolers get locked into basements and forgotten? They *do* meet other children, whether through things like scouts or sports or not. We aren't a bunch of recluses, you know. We don't try to stick a floppy in someone's mouth.

    --
    If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
  6. Re:Writing better? by ee_moss · · Score: 5, Funny

    you'll end up teaching them more about English grammar than they ever would have otherwise learned.

    I think the exception to this is my high school spanish teacher. She didn't know English and she didn't know Spanish. We argued for 3 weeks whether the word "Spanish" in the sentence "We are in la clase de la Spanish" (yes, that's how she said it) was an adjective or a verb. She argued in favor of the verb. Ah, public education.

    One funny thing to note is she once gave out referrals (passes to go see the principal) to 2 students for "sending psychic messages during a test." The kids were staring at their papers very intensely and, to her, were apparently communicating answers psychically. Another one of her students jumped out of her second story window while she was teaching class, and she didn't know until he came back upstairs through the door.