The majority (87%) of young people between the ages of 12-17 use some form of electronic personal communication, including text messaging, email or instant messaging, or post comments on social networking sites according to a new report from Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Sixty percent of teens do not view these electronic texts as “writing.” They will use both computers and longhand to write depending on the circumstance.  Fifty-seven percent say the revise and edit more when they write using a computer. Sixty-three percent say using computers to write does not affect the quality of their writing.

A majority (73%) of teens say their personal electronic communications (email, IM) have no impact on the writing they do for school, and 77 percent said they have no impact on their own personal writing.

Sixty-four percent of teens say they accidentally use some informal writing styles used in personal electronic communication for the writing they do for school. (Some 25% have used emoticons in their school writing; 50% have used informal punctuation and grammar; 38% have used text shortcuts such as “LOL”).

“There is a raging national debate about the state of writing and how high-tech communication by teens might be affecting their ability to think and write,” noted Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist at Pew who co-authored a report on the findings titled Writing, Technology and Teens.

“Those on both sides of the issue will see supporting data here. There is clearly a big gap in the minds of teenagers between the ‘real’ writing they do for school and the texts they compose for their friends.”