This month's roundup of facts, figures, and wild hunches is based on a study, released on April 24, of the effects of electronic communications on the writing habits of teenagers. Conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in partnership with the College Board’s National Commission on Writing, the study is based on a recent survey of 700 "nationally representative children," ages 12 to 17, and their parents. Here are the statistical highlights.

• Percentage of teens ages 12-17 who engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication (text messaging, sending email or instant messages, posting comments in social networking sites): 85



• Teens who do not think of these electronic texts as "writing": 60%



• Teens who say that they sometimes use informal writing styles instead of proper capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments: 50%



• Parents of teens who feel that there is a greater need to write well today than there was 20 years ago: 83%



• Teens who believe that good writing is important to success in life: 86%



• Teens who say that their school work requires writing either "every day" or "several times a week": 85%



• Teens who report that their typical school writing assignment is a paragraph to one page in length: 82%



• Teens who feel that additional in-class writing time would improve their writing abilities: 82%



• Teens who say that their internet-based writing of materials such as emails and instant messages has helped improve their overall writing: 15%



• Teens who say that this kind of writing makes no difference to their school writing: 73%

You'll find the full report at the website of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Do you think any of the survey's findings reveal anything that we didn't already know? Please share your thoughts by clicking on the comments button below. And please visit our Grammar & Composition Forum for past editions of Language Facts & Figures.