My thoughts on whether Student's should have a right to their own language.

Ethan Sousa-Gomes
ENGW 1100
September 22, 2016
Opinion: Students' Rights to their Own Language

      The animated image shown above is my initial reaction towards this subject as both sides of the argument are viable however I will be siding with the argument "yes students should be allowed to use their own language." Although I believe it should be limited in some ways students should be able to freely express themselves. Whether it be by how they talk, dress (to a degree), and especially how they write. When students write in only the academic standard (assuming they don't talk academic standard 100% of the time) it makes them sound as if they are trying to be someone they are not, as if they have been replaced with this robot named Bob. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with Bob as he (Yes he's a male robot.) hasn't done anything wrong but the student, in this case we'll name him Dylan, is not Bob therefore he shouldn't write exactly like him.

       The man in the video above is a comedian by the name of George Carlin. He was known for his satiric comedy and how damned good it was. In my opinion he was one of the best comedians to ever live as he died back in June 22, 2008. This comedy act was based upon how our language continues to get "softer", by being changed from "harsher" words to more complicated words that increase the syllables. I want you to imagine this entire skit but instead of him cursing he would use nicer words, more academic English friendly words. His whole career as a comedian would've never gotten to where it was without his ability to speak his mind and come up with those acts. As students our writing is our comedy act. It is our duty to engage the reader with whatever we write and to make sure it sounds like us and not some other bloke.

      The show above is from a book series named Game Of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice. The series was written by the magnificent George R.R. Martin who is also a lazy sack of s*** when it comes to releasing the books as readers, including myself, have been waiting for the next book since 2011 when the last one came out. Due to this many of us were forced to watch the show to see what happens next. The book most likely will be released by the time he dies which won't matter because the producers of the show were already told the entire rest of the plot line as well as the conclusion. Now that I've gotten past the boring information I thought you should know let's get on into my point. The reason I brought this show up is because George R.R. Martin does have amazing skills when it comes to writing. The books have so much detail and it includes subjects such as incest, rape, brothels, murder, heresy, and tons of backstabbing. Now all these topics alone are not the usual topics you would choose to right about if you are writing in academic English as it would be difficult to find the write words to use to create the same "impact" on the reader and it wouldn't give the reader the ability to see the difference between the different languages and races if they all spoke the same tongue.

      If George Carlin and George R.R. Martin are allowed to express themselves and to show their individuality as human beings why aren't we, as students, allowed to do the same. We are human beings just the same and silencing our true way of speaking can only hither us in the short and long term. 

   Before you say "but you said that it should be in modera...", Yes I did. If we do not use our language in moderation you will only confuse and upset your readers while at the same time make yourself look stubborn as you refuse to be "normal." Language however is the way of communication so if you are to attempt to communicate try mixing both academic with your own, you might just find that combining both ends up being better then just using one or the other.