Hello Readers, soon to be “Writers-in-Movement”
Welcome to my blog-style home for ideas (related to writing, rhetoric, speaking, listening, and more) that I know will piss off some people and please others to their soul. I’m starting a movement: “Not PC, GC.” That is, I want to put a dent in language-harming “political correctness” (PC), in favor of a revival of “grammatical correctness” (GC).
The best part? Whichever group you start out in, loving me or hating me, just keep reading, and you’ll soon join the other group — at least temporarily. Feel free to switch back and forth. In the words of Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson (in “Bungle in the Jungle”), “I’m a tiger, when I want love / But I’m a snake, if we disagree.”
Communication in a new light
Mainly, I want you to see these issues (PC or other) in a new light. New light can hurt the eyes, until they adjust. In any case, rest assured that you won’t read anything here that you’ve already encountered. That bold promise, which I will gladly fulfill, implies new light, indeed.
Safe to say, you don’t need any more of the tiresome “old light” (the same-ol’, same ol’ stuff) that you can find in hundreds of places, in about ten seconds of searching. Maybe AI even wrote it. Frankly, neither do I need to see tired arguments rehashed, so let’s both commit to making our original points in original ways — or, as I like to say, authentically.
Authenticity in language
Authenticity in language, as I define and explain it, not to mention producing it here and, formerly, in countless students, refers to both substance and style. You present fresh, maybe even novel, arguments, and you say it all your way, as no one else could, not having lived your life nor operated with your personal vocabulary and voice.
Trust me: authentic writing is under serious attack (from AI and social media in general) and, to my eyes, rarely sees the light of day. Instead we see, again and again, the same crap mostly kept generic and preferably brief — that is, necessarily lacking both style and substance.
A movement in need of movement
That’s what I’m striving to fix. I want both — from you. I’m starting a movement, and I invite you to participate as both change-agent and changed-agent! If you “sign up” — relax, there’s neither a form nor a fee; you just have to commit to yourself — you are embracing the value of tapping your ever-growing, ever-learning self for self-expression that does not simply parrot “what’s out there” (that aligns to your biases), but that “speaks for yourself.”
I want you to say your stuff, your way. Is that asking too much? Without some help, it probably is. We see it, we hear it, and we repeat it. Usually. Well, almost always. That’s why I’m here to help. It’s not a dream of mine, since I’ve already made it come true — countless times, with countless students.
Yes, I’ve taught a multitude of students, including many (among young men, a majority) who came in strongly disliking writing, to find and develop their writer’s voice and learn to share original stories and make original arguments with sturdy logic. You can learn it, too, right here in the Writing Lessons section — though I’ll admit that we are handicapped by one big difference: no assignments for you to turn in and for me to respond to.
Book Club!
I’ve got a plan for that, dearest reader-student. I call it “Book Club,” and I’ll go into details elsewhere (under a post titled “Book Club”), but the short version is that you will truly learn the best and fastest if you get one or more “partners” to join you in learning these writing lessons. Then you can practice and exchange feedback with one another. In my overgeneralized estimation, that will speed up and solidify your learning by about 300 percent.
Were I charging any fee or selling anything on this site, calling for a “book club” might seem just a ploy to get more customers. But, since I am putting up all this stuff for free, you can see that my only motivation is that you — for the time you spend here — actually learn something, such that others notice. I like evidence of learning, not just feel-good pretend learning.
Public Enemy #1 (and #2)
Such collaboration will help both you and your selected partner(s). And it will definitely advance my (our?) movement, if we can put more “boots on the ground.” Sorry for the battle metaphor, but I am at war — against people merely repeating the same tired crap that comes from their “camp.”
That’s Public Enemy “Number Two” — pee-yoo. Smells rotten. Yuck. “It’s what everybody says, so I’ll say it, too — even louder — just to show how ‘with it’ I am. I’ll be the most popular girl on the bus.” Or you’ll be the most hated girl (or guy). In these “voiceless” times, it’s one or the other. I declare war on the “just two choices” system.
Loud-mouthed side-taker (anti-critical thinker) of either “side,” when you think you’re “with it,” you’re really without it. Let’s fix that. It’s gonna take a miracle — or at least a movement. But we need to know whom (you’ll soon be learning, definitively, about who and whom, too) we’re battling. Yes, the second-biggest enemy is the ubiquitous trend (worsened by the internet and social media) of just parroting (or even worse, simply forwarding/sharing) the crap someone else has already said.
But Public Enemy Number One? That’s the gigantic, money-driven “movement” (more like stasis — where nothing moves!) of letting “generative AI” say it FOR you! Stop the insanity!
I know it seems like a viable option, when you have no voice of your own. That’s why I’m going to show you your own language (assuming you speak English) in a new light. And then you can start developing (or further developing) your own voice, such that you would scoff at the idea of letting “the great homogenizer” (AI) speak for you. Until I stop drawing breath, I am going to fight this fight. And we both need your help.
PC-types, beware the “rattlers” and their radical grandmas
Here in the blog, I mean to both educate and provoke. I plan to rattle some cages, indeed, but I can promise that you will not spend five minutes on this site without learning some things that matter – to you.
As a firm stance, I detest the language “bastardization” (preferred term of my radical grandma, an accomplished and newsmaking teacher of English, speech, theatre, and the humanities) that diminishes our cherished English language, especially for dubious political purposes. That’s why degradations of language in the name of “political correctness” strikes me as a misguided case of meaning well but doing more harm than good.
And, shocker of shockers (if you think I’m locked into the “old ways,” aka tradition), I’d pin that same label on anyone who stubbornly denies the nature of our (or any) language to continuously evolve and grow. I’m not playing the codger who wants everything to “stay the same.” I love innovation and the joy of learning, which implies growth, which implies change.
“Change” includes both growing — and dying!
But when language “grows” in the direction of shrinkage and decay, well, that’s what my star grandma taught me to see as language not growing, but dying. I intend, through this blog and our subsequent movement, to help keep this from happening. Medic!
If you’d like to join my innovative (hence, by definition, un-“popular”) crusade, you’ll need some resources. So just read on. I’ve plenty of powerful tonic to share, starting with my first grammar-specific topic, right nearby, in its own post. I call it “pronoun madness.”
My other early (already posted) “lesson” (aka Lesson #1) aims not at fixing grammar, but structure (in this case, the need for helpful paragraphing. Not all “writing issues” involve grammar; that’s just one category of writing issues, rules, and resources.
My Lesson #1 discusses, instead, structure, and you’ll be seeing several additional writing-instruction categories, beside these two. Among others, we’ll discuss things like key-word emphasis, literary devices, and that close cousin of grammar, punctuation. You’ve got a lot to learn — and I’ve got a lot to teach!. We were made for each other!