Minding Your Language

[Syntax Error]

For me, it's not really about perfect spelling or impeccable grammar. For as long as you can get your point across, you're good. But I do share your pain. Once when I was in second-year highschool (equivalent of 8th grade), I used the word "Demoralize". It became Word for the Day in my classroom...

While it is a great ego-stroke to flaunt one's extensive vocabulary every now and again, you'll just end up looking like a pretentious prick when you overdo it. SO DON'T OVERDO IT.

Anyway, as for writing style, you can either have a style all your own or you can develop a combination of styles through reading other people's works. The latter is a particularly good method if you're at a loss for what to do (and maybe someday you can take that combination to the next level and make it all your own).

 

[Say Anything]

I'm going to start off (which is funny that I say that, because I really don't ever type enough to justify an opening like that) by saying that I really haven't read the majority of these posts, not out of ignorance but moreso because I really just don't have the time or willpower to examine the way everybody feels about words, nor do I expect anyone to do the same to me.

However, my biggest problem with forums is just as my opening statement - I WANT to be able to have a lot to say, I want to say it intelligently yet legibly, but I can't do it. The only advice I'm given is to read more books, which while I don't do that, I can say that I read more each day on the forums than an average 15 year old (Oh, hey, my age!) reads in two weeks (if that's really saying much). I've signed up to three website's word-of-the-day programs, but I don't feel I'm improving my use of words because of it, and regardless my length isn't getting any better.

As for your underlying point, do I alter the way I normally speak in real life to communicate with others on The Escapist? Yes, and at great lengths. I am a huge redneck in real life. Outside of discussions in the classroom (which happen way fewer than I would enjoy) I talk with such little care for the English language because it's the first thing that comes to mind and I don't much think before I speak. "I couldn't really say I agree more," becomes, "Dude, the hell you talkin' about?" in real life, and it's really, honestly not because I'm an ass, it's just the way my mind thinks. Which is a reason I love forums; nobody is waiting on their toes for me to respond to them, and so I can take my time and compose a sentence the way I want it to read.

To bring my short discussion home, it's a huge joykill that I can't express myself the way I want to. I can say that sometimes when I'm writing a response, be it on any forums, I've been known on occasion to take five or ten minutes to figure out the way I want to write a single sentence. It really is important to me, and I can't seem to do it.

In conclusion, yes, I type differently than I speak, I feel it's useful as long as not overdone, and I wish I knew of ways to improve both the way I speak and the way I type.

EDIT: Ouch, now I'm out of order, but I thought of something I had to bring up. The biggest reason why I've been visiting forums in the past two years and taking part in many conversations as I come and go and the reason why I have such a desire to speak more figuratively with interesting thoughts is because for quite a while now I've wanted to be a song writer. I listen to a LOT of music which stems from the fact that I've always spent a lot of time on the computer and because of my love for music there's often times where I hear a new song with a cool lyric and I just think "Wow, how did I not think of that?"

 

[Alex_P]

Man, Georgey really knew how to roll up a newspaper and smack pseudo-intellectuals in the face...or something like that.

Not just pseudo-intellectuals.

Orwell slammed motherfuckin' Tolstoy [http://www.george-orwell.org/Lear,_Tolstoy_and_the_Fool/0.html], too. And he was right.

-- Alex

 

[Anton P. Nym]

People have noted that my spoken vocabulary increases after each drink for the first three drinks; I guess I'm dumbing things down as I go subconsciously and the booze is shutting that down. So I guess I have to plead guilty there.

When writing I tend to keep the vocabulary and grammar simple save when I want to make a particular rhetorical point or a more abtruse word better fits the meaning of what I'm trying to say... or (cough) I get distracted into a tangent, which is a bad tic of mine that I don't always catch. (Sorry.)

-- Steve

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

I do tend to correct my friends grammar sometimes. It just happens. But I don't mind the occasional typo.

 

[DeadpanLunatic]

I have removed my words from this site.

 

[Meta Like That]

I sound pretty much how I like to talk in short online responses, with apostrophes replacin' g's on the end of present-tense verbs and such. When it comes to getting a point across in a paragraph, I get a little more specific with verbiage, 'cause I know what a proper essay looks and sounds like. I'm no english major, so I assume everyone understands everything coming outta my mouth. Unless you don't speak english.

 

[Same River New Water]

Which is a reason I love forums; nobody is waiting on their toes for me to respond to them, and so I can take my time and compose a sentence the way I want it to read.

For a 15-year-old redneck you write damn well.

 

[Ace of Spades]

I usually keep my language fairly simplistic because I dislike having to repeat myself if the listener doesn't understand.

 

[Maet]

There was a marked subtlety and grace that carried itself wondrously with certain speakers, even when their vocabulary was compromised almost exclusively of mono-syllables or simple statements.

You are what you speak seems to be the general consensus from reading through a handful of posts in this thread.

Controlling your language is one thing, but being able to effectively employ it at any time regardless of audience and predilection is something entirely different. The beauty of language is that it's formless. To set your rhetorical style in stone because you think it makes you seem like a better person is foolish.

 

[stompy]

I speak, and by extension, write, naturally. On occasion, like for assignment (especially English), I'll use the thesaurus in Word to get a new word, but for the most part, my language is somewhat simplistic. It's better for more people to understand my simpler language that for me to stop and explain the meaning of words, which has happened to me sometimes.

To put how I feel in better wording:

I oppose over-elaborate language for the same reason Orwell did: 99% of the time such language isn't needed to say what you mean with the fewest words - in other words, it's unnecessary and hence used to be pretentious.

Note: Damn you Saskwach, you beat me to bring out the Orwell essay.

Edit: Simplicity has its own beauty.

 

[Silver]

I tend to overuse complicated and overly long words when I'm tired, especially when speaking English, which becomes more and more of a foreign language the more tired I get.

When I'm more awake, I tend to keep things as simple as possible, while still using the correct word for the job. I won't substitute a word with the wrong meaning for the right one, just because it's easier to understand, but at the same time I won't use complicated, long words, just to sound smart.

I used to do it, but realised that there was no point in it. It made me feel a bit smarter, by making the "stupid" people around me ask what I was saying, but after a while I realised that I already know that I'm smart, and I don't need them to think of me as a pretentious dick, gloating over the fact that they can't understand me, to feel that way about myself. It just serves to make enemies.

 

[Saskwach]

To put how I feel in better wording:

I oppose over-elaborate language for the same reason Orwell did: 99% of the time such language isn't needed to say what you mean with the fewest words - in other words, it's unnecessary and hence used to be pretentious.

Note: Damn you Saskwach, you beat me to bring out the Orwell essay.

Edit: Simplicity has its own beauty.

Considering Georgey runs in the family and I've pored over my copy of his collected writings, I consider it only fair that I beat you to it.

Man, Georgey really knew how to roll up a newspaper and smack pseudo-intellectuals in the face...or something like that.

Not just pseudo-intellectuals.

Orwell slammed motherfuckin' Tolstoy [http://www.george-orwell.org/Lear,_Tolstoy_and_the_Fool/0.html], too. And he was right.

-- Alex

My second favourite Orwell essay. Orwell's power as an essayist was tied to the central thesis in Politics and the English Language: he'd excite you with the pitter-patter of simple words; take you on an adventure with them; and at the end you could only marvel at where he'd taken you. Who else could have psychoanalysed Tolstoy and defended Shakespeare's charms, with no word that the average reader couldn't understand? Only a small clique of writers, if any. Honestly, I think this thread would end well (or "come to a satisfying conclusion" if you want to pad the point out) if everyone just read P and the EL and mulled it over.

 

[Turkishchocolate]

I tend to stop myself in the middle of sentences, not because of my word choice, but because I can feel a hideous Boston accent creeping up on myself. Sometimes I'll stop in the middle of a spoken sentence and snap for thirty seconds because there was a delicious sounding word that I wanted to use, but I had forgotten what it was. When I was in the third grade, I would have to stop and explain words to my peers, myself being a heavy reader (for a third grader). Now it's more explaining what I'm talking about, not the vocabulary in which I use to discuss it, because the topics of discussion I seem to be interested in are completely alien to fleshsacks between the ages of thirteen and fifteen.

I also feel as if I should use paragraph breaks more often.