Shut Up And Listen 207

Chad, His Informal Style & His Limited Vocabulary

I've been thinking about language this week a bit. See, I got back a paper in one of my classes and got the grade I deserved for it, but one comment caught my eye. It's a comment I've received a few times, actually. "Too colloquial. Write more formally." It's a legitimate comment, as I do write in a slightly informal style. I really, really, really fucking hate the formal academic style.

The formal academic style is useless, to me. I think of it as a hindrance that exists just so we in an academic setting can sit around and think we're so smart because we write in such a well-educated, formal manner. The style lacks heart, I find. It's too sterile and detached that it defeats the point of essays, which is to make an argument. That is the fundamental purpose of an essay: to make an argument. Profs say this all of the time, but then they also impose extra rules upon it that just get in the way.

I'm not saying this just because I want to write in a style more similar to the one I use for columns, it's also because I've had to read academic formal bullshit and it's horrid. I really enjoy political science classes, but I usually can't stand the readings for them, because they're almost always stuff from academic journals and those people write like shit. They are writing about interesting subjects and ideas, but the formal style they use makes it so boring it's a struggle to keep awake. What good does that do anyone? Profs and teachers have often said that great ideas are killed in papers by garbled, informal writing, but the same can be said for uptight formal writing.

Of course, changing the way things are done could lead to a lowering of standards, and that wouldn't be good. I don't know where the line should be, but I do think some profs have it set a little too high for its own good.

This also led me to think about swearing a little and how some people say that people who swear have a limited vocabulary. I honestly think that is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard, because the basic idea is faulty. On one side, we have people who use certain words at certain times, and on the other, we have people who refuse to use certain words . . . which side seems to have a limited vocabulary to you?

When it comes down to it, words like fuck and shit have no synonyms. There are no other words that capture their exact meaning--which is the case for almost all words, I find. That's why those words exist: because no existing words say quite what they do. If I tell you to fuck off, I can say something similar a bunch of different ways with the same general meaning, but no other way will have the impact and feel of fuck off.

Why do you think some people are so shocked at swear words? That's part of their built-in meaning. Maybe what I'm going for is that gut reaction to take offence just because I used some word that some guy decided at some point was ever-so naughty.

I just find it rather ignorant and overly simple to assume that because a person uses words considered more guttural than most that their vocabulary is somehow limited or that they are not as intelligent as you. Maybe it just happens that you're a cocksucking motherfucker is all.