Technology often mediates, and thus influences, written language conventions such as punctuation and capitalization. Fifty university students sent two text messages, one with an alphanumeric multi-press keypad mobile phone (i.e., Nokia 1101) and another with a full QWERTY keypad smartphone (i.e., Apple iPhone 4). Compared to text messages sent from the alphanumeric mobile phone, text messages sent from smartphone contained significantly more words, commas and question marks and significantly less required capital letters. Results suggest that text message quality may be enhanced by emerging technology (i.e., full QWERTY keypad smartphones) but not necessarily by use of standard written English language conventions such as capitalizations. Implications for higher education student writing include validating students' literacy skills, fostering global communication skills and using communication technologies to facilitate learning.