Abstract

GOMEZ-CAMACHO, Alejandro  and  GOMEZ DEL CASTILLO, María Teresa. Written Norms in the WhatsApp Conversations of Graduate Students. RMIE [online]. 2017, vol.22, n.75, pp.1077-1094. ISSN 1405-6666.

The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics of written norms in the synchronic digital conversations of graduate students at Universidad de Sevilla, and the relation to academic writing. To reach this end, an examination was made of 529 of the students’ WhatsApp chats and 38 of their academic texts. The textual analysis showed that the digital norm they utilized was characterized by the use of textisms and by the multi-modality of texts in a significantly smaller proportion than among younger and less-educated individuals, with no impact on the appearance of spelling errors in academic writing. In conclusion, the digital norm among adult graduate students is characterized by a progressive approach to standard writing in Spanish and is not related to an increase in spelling errors in formal texts.

Keywords : technologies of information and communication; graduate students; social networks; production of text; spelling.

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