Jonathan Cook @jern-cook - Tumblr Blog

Grammar Myth: You cannot begin a sentence with "and," "or," "but," or "so"

It’s time to go myth-busting—grammar style!

So what we’re saying is that this grammar myth is officially busted. But if your teacher is adamant against the use of conjunctions at the start of sentences, do what he or she says. (You need the grade.)

*Logs onto tumblr to look at previous posts made for class*

*Spends an hour looking at other people's tumblr posts*

*Logs off of tumblr*

*Remembers the real purpose for logging onto tumblr was to do homework*

*Logs back onto tumblr*

Me trying to convince my non-reading friends that books are awesome

Freshman Writing as a Genre

Freshman essays as a genre is actually quite interesting to me. I attended a college writing symposium which showcased freshmen presenting their work from their college writing class. What I observed was quite intriguing.

The essays that the students prepared were generally simple topics, which might be expected in a lower level college course. Many students set up a simple problem that can be picked apart relatively safely. For example one student described how sex and the female body is used in advertisements, and how that is a bad thing. Not many are going to strictly oppose that argument. Yet, the argument missed a lot of possibly valid counter-arguments as she took a hard stance against the entire marketing industry's use of the female body in advertising. The strong language employed to condemn specific advertisements was impressive and heavy-handed.

Other students tried to set up a research project where they themselves had to venture forward into the world to collect data. Again, the students picked topics that seemed easy as first glance. One student tried to explain whether dogs preferred women or men. Another explored how nature trails were used. What I noticed was both projects did not recognize the many variables present. This perhaps parallels my first example that did not recognize alternative points of view.

Basically, I feel that freshmen seem to write their essays as a means to an end. Instead of writing an essay that explores a realm of thought, or argues for a mode of thought among many other thoughts, freshmen tend to present a question then build a large neon sign that casually points exactly to their one answer. Rarely are there such definitive answers in the universe. I believe freshmen tend to have this problem of hard stances because they have not been through enough college classes to realize that many problems are not clean cut like they were in high school. In fact, almost all of the real problems are very messy and do not have a perfect answer. Perhaps they might even believe that they must take a hard stance in order to be persuasive. That is why their essays seem to be absurdly hard wired in one direction.

You know what they say

What is academic discourse?

I believe, in our literary framing of academic discourse, it is a style that is meant to elaborately and eloquently portray complex meaning. In Bartholomae’s essay “Inventing the University,” he gives undergraduate applicant essays as examples of early attempts at such academic discourse. It is clear that one can sound like an outsider by looking at his examples, because the thick and convoluted language takes time and study to become acquainted. To professors especially, the discourse is fluid and second-nature. The applicants were speaking in a voice that was not their own, and thus spoke with a heavy accent. An accent that clues the reader they are not from the area. Academic discourse is the desired style of the privileged student of language.

It is interesting that Bartholomae describes the process students go through as ‘inventing the university’ because students have to invent the discourse they use. That is what it has felt like, to me, as an early undergraduate student. I was trying to figure out how to speak the way learned people do, which can mean something different to whoever you ask. Many of us have read an academic essay and encounter very long, complex, and convoluted sentences that seem too long to be intelligent. But for some, those kinds of sentences are the trademark of an exceedingly educated individual. To me, academic discourse is the language one ‘invents’ to best captivate your audience in a way that is refined and intellectual.

How much time do you spend thinking about the way you write?

I have not spent any time reflecting on my own writing at all, in fact, until recently. Since high school, I always thought I would major in some science and end up in scrubs or a lab coat somewhere. Never did I think that my writing would be important, and that continued on until I eventually dropped biology and picked up a pen. Whenever I wrote previously, the words on my page were, basically, the words that I spoke through my head. I never critically analyzed how my writing was crafted because I always received good grades on my writing so I figured it was not necessary.

High style versus Low style

The distinction between high style and low style of language is quite complicated but actually quite simple to move through. As humans, we are actually pretty good at determining whether somebody is going for high style or low inherently. Kind of how we know when somebody is trying to dress high style as opposed to low, because we see fancy clothes in classic or unique combinations. A man wearing a nice suit is going for high style while sweatpants and a shirt show that the style is not something the man is going for. There isn’t anything wrong with the low style, it’s simply easier and more accessible than the suit.

Drawing a parallel to my clothes example, high style and low style has the same distinction. Somebody speaking or writing in high style use complicated and lofty words in a unique and thoughtful style. High style will use a lot of description, rhythm, parallelism, alliteration, and many other literary techniques to be deeper and sophisticated. The problem, or perhaps it’s not necessarily a problem, is that these techniques and words make the text or speech inaccessible to those who aren’t as educated. So, too, is high style in everything else. Suits are high style because not everybody can afford to wear them regularly. High style text is high style because not everybody can read it once and immediately understand it. High style needs to be achieved, and is therefore desired.

High style is not always appropriate, however. And neither is a suit. You don’t see anybody wearing a suit at a tractor pull. Why? Because the occasion absolutely does not call for it. For the same reason, we do not hear people talking in a lofty and hyper educated style at the mall. The context of the rhetoric in question has everything to do with what style is employed and why. If we do see a suit at a tractor pull, there is probably a pretty damn good reason for the man or woman to put on such expensive clothes in such a cheap environment (no offense to those who enjoy tractor pulls). If we hear or read high style language in a cheap environment like the mall or Facebook, they are probably trying really hard to impress somebody. High style, in summary, is meant to impress us. ‘The flower was nice,’ doesn’t impress us nearly as much as ‘The flower was magnificently scented.’

Low style, on the other hand, is the everyday point maker. You meet an acquaintance in public and wish to discuss work matters; the most likely style of language will be low style. The reason is both parties wish to discuss what they want to discuss without muddling through complicated words and phrases and parsing complicated sentence structures and tropes. We tend to think of people who use high style unnecessarily as narcissistic, and egotistical. I like to say those people just like to hear themselves talk. I think we tend to shut down those people, because they annoy us. People do not like it when people place something out of reach on purpose. Therefore, care must be had when using high language. Consider when low style is more appropriate. Don’t be the guy wearing a suit to the county fair. But then again, don’t be the guy wearing sweat pants to the board meeting.

Rhetoric and Context

Rhetoric in its most simple definition is the effective use of language. Well that is quite a complicated thing to explain; how can language be effective? An important thing to begin looking at is what context is the language being used in. That can immediately be broken into two frameworks of language: writing and spoken language. Spoken words need immediate context in order to be understood. When somebody hears something without any context they do not understand any meaning from the words that were uttered. For example, when in public and you hear the last part of a sentence without context, you can only guess at the words meaning. Maybe you can glean some context from the surroundings: where are you, what time is it, what are they doing, etc. The possible meaning would be completely different depending on context. If you hear something like “Okay, I’ll try it,” in a mall food court, the meaning it carries would have a different impact if it was heard in a clothes store in said mall, for example.

Speech is immediate. The moment it is uttered it is heard from all surrounding parties. All persons must be currently engaged in the context in order for them to understand what is being said. Involved parties must be aware and make connections with what is being said. “Good weather we’re having,” has no impact on somebody who has no idea where they are. “What do you think about the game last night?” has no impact on somebody who has no idea what game you’re talking about. In simple cases, they might be able to inquire the actual meaning and correct their idea of the context in order to understand what is being communicated. In other, more complicated instances the confusion might become too much to muddle through and the subject is dropped.

Writing is an entirely different medium to tangle with. Writing travels through time and space, and therefore cannot have the same immediate contexts available that speech does. If somebody reads “What do you think about the game last night?” they cannot have any idea what game the author is talking about and if it is even the present time in context. But writing itself is its own context. At its core, we know that somebody at some point wrote down what was on their mind. Depending on word usage, tone, and the words and their literal meaning, we can determine what their meaning is to us. I say it like that because it is very hard for writing to have a concrete meaning. It is up to the reader to take what they read and draw their own conclusions with it. A common example of this is in literature. Many people can read the exact same story and draw completely different conclusions.

I believe that writing is a craft. Different words in different orders can have different impacts on different people. To put it simply, one must be very diligent with their audience and the contexts they provide and their word choice when trying to make a point via writing lest they lose their meaning.

My writing style (313 - This is for you, Thuone)

What is it about your own writing style and editing habits that you would like to improve?

First of all, I would like to be able to analyze my own style usage more effectively and to be able to switch up my writing style to better suit the audience I’m addressing. I feel that I tend to take the same tone and approaches to getting my message across and fear that I get too repetitive. Also, I would like to learn how to flow better between topics and ideas. As for my editing habits, any improvements there would be great. As a seasoned ‘fast write, finish’ kind of student I generally only proof-read my works for major grammar and spelling mistakes once. I know it’s a bad idea but I really just want to get my work done and out of the way, so taking a step back and spending more time on edits is a good first step. Reading my own works multiple times over will probably improve my writing style naturally.

What do you think you do well (in writing) already?

I like to think that I can vary my wording quite well. One thing I pride myself in is not getting repetitive with my word usage. Sentence structure may be repetitive but my wording certainly is not. Also, I can get to my point without taking too long, which is important. I attribute that to my biology background; I can convey what needs to be, and move along to the next set of ideas. I look forward to having more opportunities to compose elegant prose now that I am a student of rhetoric and writing.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Jonathan Cook