Question

I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(question)Take a look at "Communicating in Code." Explain how the legacy of the telegraph machine lives on in Twitter. Support your answer with evidence from the text.
Communicating in Code


The telegraph machine may be a thing of the past. But its legacy lives on. The communication style used in telegrams may have led to modern language abbreviations. These are used in Short Message Services (SMS) such as Twitter.

Continue reading to learn more about the language of the telegraph system. Learn about today's modern text messages as well.

Morse Code

Morse code is a series of dots and dashes. These are used to write messages. Each number and letter in the alphabet has its own pattern of these dots and dashes. Key operators would use telegraph machines. They would tap out each dot (short tap) and dash (long tap) of a message. Here is a chart showing the code for each letter and number.


Telegram Style

People sending telegrams often had to keep their messages short. Some telegraph carriers charged more money for messages that were longer than 10 words. They charged more for words that were longer than 15 characters. Affordable telegrams, therefore, were limited. They could be no more than 150 characters. Senders willing to pay a bit more could say more. Here are some examples of telegrams. These telegrams describe historic events that are now famous.

In December 1903, Orville Wright sent a telegram. He sent it to his family:

Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas. Orville Wright

In April 1912, the Titanic, a massive passenger ship, set sail. It sank in the North Atlantic. Bruce Ismay was an officer on the ship. He rescued some of the people on board. He sent the following telegram to the headquarters of the company that operated the Titanic:

Deeply regret advise your Titanic sunk this morning fifteenth after collision iceberg resulting serious loss life further particulars later. Bruce Ismay.

Telegrams often skipped words. They used only the characters necessary to give the meaning of the message.

SMS Language

Today, people who send text messages and tweets have their own way of shortening their messages. They use SMS language. SMS language is a communication shorthand that contains hundreds of phrases. Take a look at a few examples of SMS. See if you recognize any of the phrases.

Answer 1

Because Morse code was time consuming and expensive to use, the messages had to be shortened to include only the important information. Often that meant things like "the" were left out, as the message could still be understood even if it wasn't entirely grammatically correct. The same applies to twitter as there is a limit on the number of characters allowed (140). The character limit is due to how mobile carriers only allow 160 characters sent, but 20 of them are reserved for the twitter handle (aka the username). Going back in history, telegrams also had a very similar character limit. As the text states: "Affordable telegrams, therefore, were limited. They could be no more than 150 characters" and this is only applicable to the affordable options. Many people weren't so lucky to have these cheaper plans. The unfortunate people had "telegraph carriers charged more money for messages that were longer than 10 words. They charged more for words that were longer than 15 characters."