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All teens write for school, and 93% of teens say they write for their own pleasure.

Teens generally do not believe that technology negatively influences the quality of their writing, but they do acknowledge that the informal styles of writing that mark the use of these text-based technologies for many teens do occasionally filter into their school work. Overall, nearly two-thirds of teens (64%) say they incorporate some informal styles from their text-based communications into their writing at school.

Parents believe that their children write more as teens than they did at that age.

Teenagers' lives are filled with writing.

At its core, the digital age presents a paradox. Most teenagers spend a considerable amount of their life composing texts, but they do not think that a lot of the material they create electronically is real writing. The act of exchanging emails, instant messages, texts, and social network posts is communication that carries the same weight to teens as phone calls and between-class hallway greetings.

At the same time that teens disassociate e-communication with "writing," they also strongly believe that good writing is a critical skill to achieving success -- and their parents agree.

While the debate about the relationship between e-communication and formal writing is on-going, few have systematically talked to teens to see what they have to say about the state of writing in their lives.

The internet is also a primary source for research done at or for school. 94% of teens use the internet at least occasionally to do research for school, and nearly half (48%) report doing so once a week or more often.

Teens believe that the writing instruction they receive in school could be improved.

Overall, 82% of teens feel that additional in-class writing time would improve their writing abilities and 78% feel the same way about their teachers using computer-based writing tools.

47% of black teens write in a journal, compared with 31% of white teens. 37% of black teens write music or lyrics, while 23% of white teens do. 49% of girls keep a journal; 20% of boys do. 26% of boys say they never write for personal enjoyment outside of school. Multi-channel teens and gadget owners do not write any more -- or less --than their counterparts, but bloggers are more prolific.