In “The Sense of Style”, the author, Pinker talks about how writing is way more complex than a lot of people seem to think it is these days. He seems to think that technology; such as texting, facebooking, tweeting, etc. have started to take over in recent years, and that it may be affecting younger generations’ writing abilities. I would have to agree with this to some extent. I definitely agree that technology is taking over. It’s not only taking over our social lives, but it’s taking over our academic lives as well. The difference between the two, though, is the language and syntax we use. While it may be okay to use improper grammar and say things like “where r u?” or “lol” in a text or on twitter, It’s certainly not the most academic style. There is a line, and I think that as long as internet and smartphone users can recognize when certain writing styles are appropriate and where they’re not, we should be fine. But that is something we had to be taught, and future generations will also have to be taught. If we, as writers, cannot recognize the difference, or are not taught the difference, it will affect us in the long run. Pinker mentions, in the reading, that “style earns trust”. This is exactly what I’m talking about when I say that we will be affected in the long run. I say ‘we’ referring to my generation and future generations because we are at an age right now where our ability to impress people with our writing is critical. Not only in the classroom, but outside in the real world. Once we graduate, whether it’s from high school or from college, we are going to go on to get jobs. Maybe even go to graduate school, med school, etc. Wherever we decide to go, we have to , first, impress our interviewer with our writing. If we are applying for a job or a school, and our application is filled with improper grammar, incomplete sentences, and really just doesn’t make much sense, what is that going to make us look like? It’s definitely not going to make the “judge” feel like we’re capable of doing the work. We have to earn their trust through our writing. We have to make them believe that we want the job, or that we can do the work, and they only way to do that, is to sound like you know what you’re talking about.
“I won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar”
Mini Reflection
I’m not the best writer, so right off the bat, I go into writing classes thinking the worst. Usually, they end up being better than I expected. I was pretty intimidated by this reading and probably all of the other ones simply because of it’s length. I went in thinking ‘there’s no way I can read all of this and remember enough to blog about it’, but I did. When I find something dry and boring, I have a hard time remembering two sentences back, let alone 10 pages back. I just have to give myself more credit and maybe a little more time to work on things like this.
RachelBayne 