It’s all about the ideas, baby (Response to “Should Writers Use They Own English”)
Reading this brilliant article not only blew my mind but made me feel so validated as a writer. Vershawn Ashanti Young’s thoughts on students writing with their own voices especially resonated with me. I always feel better about my writing when I use my own voice to express my ideas. This article taught me that it’s not only easier to write in your own voice, but it also often helps your message get across. Ideas shine through when they aren’t being made murky by attempts to be more formal and academic. Not that academic writing is inefficient or anything —it only is when the writer is focusing more on sounding scholarly than their ideas. I loved that this article brought this up! I feel really intimidated by writing assignments that expect me to have flawless grammar, elevated vocabulary that I barely use in conversation, and a serious, scholarly tone throughout. Reading Young’s ideas made me feel like I didn’t need to do those things to be a worthy writer or a good student. Good writing doesn’t need to be so hard.
Another part that really resonated with me was this:
“Standard language ideology insist that minority people will never become an Ivy League English department chair or president of Harvard University if they dont perfect they mastery of standard English. At the same time the ideology instruct that white men will gain such positions, even with a questionable handle of standard grammar and rhetoric”
It infuriates me how people who speak in different dialects or have imperfect English, often people of color, are disproportionately hurt by this expectation of flawless standard English. I think this is just another excuse to keep minorities out of positions of power.
What does it matter if someone doesn’t write in perfect standard English? Prof. D brought up a great point in our breakout room the other day: how could English, a language with countless rules and exceptions, a language so hard to learn, possibly have a “standard” mode? I think English is dumb. I’m very grateful that it was my first language because I’m sure that learning it would have felt like trying to learn to ride a bike with square wheels that is also on fire. The rules of English are, in my opinion, convoluted and confusing, and everything can be expressed in a million different ways. How could just one way be right? And why is it that you need to learn this one way to be considered professional and valid?
I kinda went into this article thinking, “okay, AAVE is good, but maybe people shouldn’t use it in formal/academic writing because it’s too casual and it’s like slang.” But what difference is there between me preferring to write the way I talk and African American people writing the way they talk? There is none. I love to write in the way that helps me express my ideas exactly the way I want to. I think writing would be a lot more meaningful and personal if everyone wrote in their own voice. Young proves that dialect does not inhibit the transfer of ideas or their impact. It’s all about the ideas! That’s the point of writing!
Furthermore, who am I to say that AAVE isn’t formal or academic? It has its own set of rules and grammar just as English does. I don’t think I ever really realized that AAVE does have a structure until our discussion about this article in class. I find that fascinating!
Writing in my own voice makes me love writing rather than dread it. I learned that about myself this week. I’ve been so stressed about being proper and seeming professional that I pretty much forgot that I actually love to write. I also love to read writing that’s individualized and personal and meaningful. As long as your ideas come across, your language doesn’t matter.
