For a fairly comprehensive listing of the writing systems of the world click here (note that not everything included is a writing system: the “Pictographic/ideographic writing systems” in particular are not writing systems). ScriptSource, developed and maintained by SIL International, provides a good deal of information on 149 writing systems in use today, including samples and links to fonts (where available).

The following sites have good information on writing systems:

For further information on the Chinese oracle bones, as well as photographs of examples, can be found at: Exploring Chinese History.

The second edition of the textbook included a brief section on text messaging, which has now been “retired” since this technology is no longer as popular as it was a decade ago, and is now used in just a few restricted domains. A slightly updated and edited version of that section can be found here. In addition, Wikipedia has a useful general article on text messaging and a more specific one on the language of text messaging.

On the internet it is easy to find expressions of concern about the undesirable consequences of text messaging, e.g. on the language and minds of users. This has been disputed by a number of linguists (see e.g. Crystal 2008). The Nuffield Foundation has a brief summary of a longitudinal study investigating whether grammatical violations in text messaging have detrimental effects on grammatical development and related literacy and language skills.