An Analysis of the Use of Orthographic Rules in Students' Written Assignments in Digital Environments

Being literate in the 21 st century implies more than knowing how to read, write, and calculate; in the digital era, literacy involves various aspects, including digital literacy.Information and communication technologies and the evergrowing amount and speed of written communication greatly affect how we use language in digital environments.This paper investigates orthographic rules and focuses on those segments specific to typing -namely, the use of a space, and writing the symbols that represent letters and punctuation marks.The main aim of this study is to identify and analyze common and recurrent mistakes undergraduate students majoring in English philology made in their essays written in English and translations written in Serbian.The results obtained from the analysis draw attention to those rules often violated in typing, and a possible language transfer in translation, focusing on contrastive analysis tenets.This study also draws attention to the significance of cultivating literacy in digital environments through the development of a neat and careful manner of using language in all contexts, particularly in formal and academic writing.