1. Using Appropriate Language
Chapter 37
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2. Appropriate language What is appropriate language?
Language that suits your writing situation (subject, purpose, and audience)
- Language varies depending on the context in which you are speaking and writing
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3. Appropriate language Example pg. 502
Some patients decide to bag counseling because their shrinks seems strung out.
Some patients decide to abandon counseling because their therapists seem disturbed.
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4. Standard American English
Dialect of English normally expected and used in school, business, government, the professions, and the communications media.
Always consult a dictionary to make sure you are in doubt about a word.
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5. Academic Writing - appropriate language
Use standard American English
Avoid stereotypes
Avoid sexist language
Be sensitive when labeling groups
See examples on pg. 503
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6. texting, tweeting, emailing, IM’ing
Online communication
Revise the shortcuts
Rapid communication
texting, tweeting, ing, IM’ing
Not appropriate for academic writing
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7. Online communication Sentence fragments
Every sentence must have a subject and a predicate
Example: The wind blows. (correct).
The wind blowing. (incorrect)
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8. Online communication Missing punctuation
Check for missing commas within sentences, use standard punctuation marks.
Example: The city needs healthier businesses, new schools,
and improved housing.
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9. Online communication
Missing apostrophes in possessives and contractions
Example: Diane’s assignments are too long.
The Jones’ dog is missing.
We can’t arrive before noon.
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10. Online communication Missing capital letters beginning of sentences
proper nouns and adjectives, titles
Example: Proper noun - Stephen King
Proper adjective – Houstonian
Title – President Obama
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11. Online communication
Nonstandard abbreviations and spellings Examples: 2 too or to b4 before b/c or bc because
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12. Use slang only when appropriate
Slang – novel or colorful expressions
Slang: Many students start out pretty together but then get weird.
Revised: Many students start out with clear goals
but then lose their direction.
The problem:
Too flippant or imprecise for effective communication
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13. Colloquial language How you speak in everyday language.
Okay for informal writing
Can help with desired emphasis
Doesn’t provide exactness needed for formal professional writing
Avoid mixed diction – combo of standard and colloquial words
See example pg. 505
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14. Regionalisms
Expressions or pronunciations peculiar to a particular area
Use when addressing local readers
Example: Southerners “recon”
New Yorkers “stand on” a line.
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15. Neologisms
Words created so recently that they have not come into established use
Some become accepted as a part of general vocabulary
Ex. Prequel, shockvertising, semi-entertaining, blogging
Make sure your readers understand these words
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16. Technical Words Communication between specialists
Communicate precisely
Meaningless to non-specialists
Provide an explanation
Use with care
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17. Indirect and Pretentious writing
Best writing
Use small, plain, direct words are best
Avoid euphemisms
Avoid double talk
Avoid pretentious writing
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18. Indirect and Pretentious writing
Euphemism
Un-offensive word that a writer or speaker substitutes for a word deemed potentially offensive or too blunt
Example: Died vs. passes away
Appear when writers want to soften the truth
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19. Indirect and Pretentious writing
Doublespeak or weasel words
- Language meant to confuse or to be misunderstood
categorical inaccuracy : a lie
voluntary severance : fired or laid off the job
senior citizen or the chronologically advantaged: old
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20. Indirect and Pretentious writing
Writing that is excessively showy
Any writing that is more elaborate than its subject requires
See example pg. 507
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21. Sexist and other biased language
Language can reflect and perpetuate hurtful prejudices toward groups of people
Racial, ethnic, religious, age, and sexual groups
Eliminating sexist language pg. 508
Steer clear of it.
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22. Use appropriate labels
Avoid labels that disparage the person or group
A person with emotional problems isn’t a mental patient
Use names for racial, ethnic, and other groups that reflect the preferences of each group’s members
African-American, latino/latina, people with disabilities not handicapped.
Identify a person’s group only when it is relevant to the point your making
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23. Using Exact Language
Chapter 38
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24. Avoid mistakes in word choice
Make sure your words have the meanings you intend (see ex. Pg. 512)
Make sure that any word suggested by a spelling checker is the one you mean
Use idioms correctly –
Idioms - expressions whose meanings cannot be determined from the words in them or whose component words cannot be predicted by any rule of grammar
English idioms: put up with, plug away at, make off with
Pg. 518
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25. Using the right word
Use the right word for your meaning. Must Understand: Denotation Connotation
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26. Using the right word Denotation Thing or idea word refers to
Distinguish b/t similar-sounding words that have different denotations (see ex. pg. 514)
Homonyms – words that sound alike but have a different meaning and spelling
Examples: principle/principal
rain/reign/rein
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27. Using the right word Connotation
Related meanings that evoke specific feelings
Shape readers’ responses
Powerful tools for writers
Home/house skinny/thin
child/brat fat/plump
firm/stubborn cry/weep
relatives/family
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28. Abstract & concrete ,General & specific
Use words that tell readers what you want them to know
Abstract words
beauty, inflation, management, culture, liberal
Concrete words
Things you can know by your 5 senses
(see, taste, feel, hear, smell)
General words – name classes or groups of things
Specific words – limit a general class
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29. Abstract & concrete ,General & specific
General/Abstract (pg. 517)
Car
Flower
Teacher
Pretty
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30. Figurative language Figures of speech
Departs from the literal meanings (denotations) of words
Compares very different ideas or objects
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31. Figurative language 2 common figures of speech simile metaphor
Both compare 2 things of different classes – often one abstract one concrete
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32. Figurative language Simile Metaphor Comparison is explicit
Usually begins with like or as
Example: slept like a log
Metaphor
Implies the comparison without using like or as
Example: Life is a jungle.
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33. Figurative language Other figures of speech Personification Hyperbole
Treats ideas and objects as if they were human
Example: The economy consumes my money.
Hyperbole
Deliberately exaggerates
Example: He yelled so loud that his voice carried to the next
country.
Avoid mixed metaphors
Writer combines 2 or more incompatible figures .see pg. 521
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34. Use fresh, not trite expressions
Phrases so old and so often repeated they become stale.
See pg. 522 for list
Revise by using words of your own or restate the idea in plain language.
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35. Writing Concisely Eliminate empty phrases (full list pg. 526)
Examples: at all times = always
at the present time = now
in order to = to
due to the fact that = because
for the purpose of = for
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36. Cut unnecessary repetition
Saying the same thing twice
Planned repetition can emphasize a point
Unplanned can make your writing confusing
Wordy: Many unskilled workers without training in a
particular job are unemployed and do not have any work.
Concise: Many unskilled workers are unemployed
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37. Cut unnecessary repetition
Many phrases say the same thing twice
Examples: Circle around the future to come
Continue on repeat again
Few in number, return again
Surrounding circumstances
These are redundant b/c the main word already implies the underlined word.
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