Welcome back today we're gonna be talking about why we're ready to begin
with so to make sure that we are on the same page as to why we're even in this
course or why this course I think is worth both of our times. In today's age
of telecommunication and YouTube videos and documentaries and Netflix and
instant streaming, it might seem like we're becoming less of a reading and writing
culture and more of a recording and visual culture. Now if you couldn't tell
by the nature of my videos I'm no expert - in fact most of you could probably
create much better videos than this. I'm not much older than you but my cellphone is from 2007 and I've never snapshot myself across the internet. So
one thing that I do know though, because I use the Internet as well (surprise), is that a lot of the great things you see on the web have a script
behind them: they have some sort of writing backing them up. A lot of people
who vlog for a living are doing so with scripts not a lot of people just fly off
the cuff. Unless maybe you're screaming at a video game. So for today I want to
talk about why it is we're writing. There was a time when if you created a great
scientific discovery you would publish it in a poem, which is obviously not the
case anymore, but still, discoveries are published in academic journals as well
as philosophical arguments, ethical debates all of this is still put down
into writing. Why is that? Well I want to talk to you about the difference between
writing and speaking. And just give you a little bit of a crash course in
linguistics- if you're not familiar with it. So I put two words up on the board,
that I hope my head is not blocking, first is prescriptive and second is
descriptive. And now these two words symbolize what's called a spectrum in
our language: when you're talking about them from linguistics. So on the
prescriptive side you have a scale, a spectrum right? On the prescriptive side
you have people who are very by-the-book. Right? So if you're thinking a
prescriptive thing: prescription, right? So prescriptives say language has to be a
certain way.
Language has to be correct, it has to be a certain way. So they're really careful
about comma splices, split infinitives, all these rules of language that have
been passed down through hundreds and hundreds of years. Where as descriptive
linguists think: description, right? They say language belongs to the
speakers. So they say whatever people say, describes their language: which is why we
have words like "ain't" that are part of our language whereas before they were
not. And language is always, always changing. So every year, as a teacher, I learn
new words. Language I won't repeat on camera because I don't need that.
But you hear students come in every single year and they have
different words that are being used and sometimes they get very very popular and
they continue to be used. Sometimes they're like "Yolo" and thankfully they
they kind of die off, right? So these are the two opposite ends of language and if
you were to think, you know, like the language debate or linguistic debate is
dead, all you have to do is ask someone which one is correct and you'd get a bunch
of different answers because it is a spectrum. So maybe think about
where do you where do you sit here? Do you think everyone should be using the
proper words all the time? That there is a difference between well and good? That
you should not end a sentence with a preposition? That you should know the
difference between who and whom? If someone uses a word like...I don't know
there's lots of words that make people angry; I can't think of
right now, but anyway, [laughter] If you think that language has to be a
certain way. (maybe I can edit that out). If you think language has to be a
certain way, you would be on the prescriptive side. If you think however I
speak is how language should be, however the majority of people speak is how
language should be, [then] you would be on the descriptive side. For me, I kind of split
the difference - which feels very lukewarm - but I argue that writing belongs over
here and that speaking belongs over here.
There's certain regions of America that speak differently; they don't necessarily
speak with a proper English, very few dialects have a proper English, none
really... maybe Harvard professors. But that
doesn't mean their language is wrong. I'm making grammatical errors all the time
when I'm speaking here. I'm taking out words that should be there. I'm speaking
in complete sentences, you know? So did Shakespeare's characters on stage, that
doesn't mean it's necessarily wrong - it's serving a different purpose. If it's
artistic or it's spoken, I'm much more on the descriptive side. But on the
prescriptive side, is where we put our writing. Now what makes writing different
from language? Why is it formal as opposed...or why is writing different from
speaking? Why is it formal as opposed to informal? Well, the greatest difference is
that writing is supposed to be this condensed form of thought. That if you
were to put forth an argument in writing, you've taken time to do it right. Now as
I speak to you, I'm saying things that I wish I would have written down, right? I
wish I would have maybe practice more. But I can't take it back and one of the
reasons why speaking into a camera is very hard is because you can't gauge how
the audience is reacting at this moment like you can with an actual person. When
you speak you have body language, you know if someone's looking away, you know
if someone puts their head down, if they take out their phone, right? You have eye contact, you have the the ability to respond and you can have
a dialogue with them. All those things are great with speaking. With writing
that's not there. You prepare this argument and then you send it out into the world
and it has to stand on its own. So, when we write we want to make sure our
writing is as strong as possible. Now, I'm not talking about sending a text message
or updating your Twitter account. I'm talking when you write something
that you want to have value, you want to have a lasting effect on someone who
reads it, and you want your name to be proudly behind it: that's when we talk
about prescriptive writing. So in our course we are going to really focus
on writing in the quote/unquote proper way and I don't want you to think that
the proper way means that your way of speaking or way of writing is wrong. It's
not at all. It's just in an academic sense, I want you to be as well-equipped
as possible. So I want you to kind of think of that. As we move forward we will
talk a little bit more about the theory of language but most of this class is
going to be very hands-on and precise. You do have a discussion post
following this where I want you to just find someone who's writing you really
care about: someone who writes an argumentative piece: so it's arguing for
something. And I'll have more details in the description of the
discussion. But find someone whose writing you really care about. So maybe it's a
journalist you really like or if you have no clue, you're like, "I don't know
any journalists at all." Maybe just find a topic you really like: read a couple of
articles on that topic and figure out who's writing really stands out to
you. And with that said, we'll move on to our second discussion post for the class
move right along through these modules and then we'll
move on to the next one. Alright thanks for listening.