The Good Word

The Good Word
As I was considering what to share for my next post, I realized that the whole issue of “Word Choice” that is so “internal” to writers is an issue worth exploring.

How do we choose the words we use?

If we write for an academic audience, we tend to use specific words that, at least in theory, mean something to that academic audience. While the whole context of something being “academic” has taken on the meaning of irrelevance, among academics, the meaning of particular words is of intense importance. Academics always right toward the overriding goal of precision; however, that goal can sometimes bring about abstraction and lose of connection with potential listeners.

In fact, those same precision-intended (or should I say “Precision Guided”?) words used among the wrong listeners, in other words, misused, take on the feeling of abstraction, elitism, and yes, irrelevance, as a result. Listeners hearing the wrong word think, often correctly, that the speaker is more interested in impressing them than in communicating WITH them.

Academics also learn early on in their careers to avoid the passive tense (in which the subject of the sentence is being acted upon, rather than doing the acting), the use of first person (“I think” or “We feel”), and contractions.

If we speak to a less academic audience, or a mixed one, we might value the use of these things, in the interest of making a connection, even thought we might lose precision as a result. That’s a fair trade-off.

Or, we might not want to leave mysterious the responsibility for some action or belief. Use of the passive is a good way to not lay blame on anyone in that regard.

If you think the sometimes instantaneous, yet painstaking choices outlined above are limited to an ever older set of speakers, think again.

A number of studies have shown that the college age writer is quite aware of the difference between the “IM” culture, with its abbreviations and shorthand, and more formal discourse.

Word choice, then, far from being an academic concern limited to an ever smaller circle of speakers, has increasing relevance among young people, not in spite of, but because of the proliferation of abbreviated speech in a particular contexts such as instant messaging.

For more evidence that Computer Culture is increasingly relevant to speech and connection (the horizontal and the vertical), stay tuned.