I got a mobile phone very late on. Resistant to the charms, I held out until the looming birth of Henry, where being immediately reachable appeared crucial. Even now, something like 18 months later, I’ve perhaps made a total of 10 calls, maybe less. Yet it is the art of the text message that has captured me. Routinely I converse with my wife throughout the day through texts. Yet not for me is the shorthand “text message speak“. I find "text speak" is almost impossible to interpret, let alone understand the sort of ADD-influenced logic that appears to determine most of coded messages. So I choose to preserve proper standards of written English. Correct syntax and grammar should be maintained at all time, and spelling should not be sacrificed for speed or quantity. That’s not to say that my messaging does not differ from other modes of communication, because it does. And here is my point. Through no conscious effort on my part, text messaging is honing my ‘Hemingway”. First a c...