Appraisal of Syntactic and Semantic Usage of SMS Writing in English Language

Communication should be carried out in a clear and common language for it to achieve the desired goal(s). However, students writings in recent times, have show some forms of deviation which is linked to SMS language and writing. This paper assesses the influence of SMS writing on the syntactic and semantic rules of English language. Using the descriptive method, the essays of 150 students of FCT College of Education, Zuba, was analysed and errors identified using the frequency, mean scores and standard deviation. The result revealed that their writing skills are marred by significant error following the distortion of the syntactic and semantic rules of English language due to habitual use of SMS writing. Consequent on the above revelation, recommendations were made.