Sprunger

Eng 315

Reaction Paper #1

Even if you’ve never encountered the terms before, we all endorse either the “prescriptive” or “descriptive” approach to language and grammar. So, if you have to take a side, which are you? And, more interestingly, how did you get there? Notice that a person is rarely entirely in one camp or the other, but we fall somewhere in between.

After reading the essays by John Simon and Bill Bryson, identify your position and tell a story that either ...

•          illustrates your position; or                       

•          explains why you hold the position that you do; or

•          shows how you switched from one position to the other.

In thinking about your formative experiences, these questions may give you some ideas:

~ Describe an experience where you were bothered by someone’s poor grammar, usage, and/or phonology. Why were you annoyed?

~ Recreate an experience when you judged someone by his or her use of English (for better or worse). In retrospect, was your judgement accurate?

~ Have you ever been judged because of your language use (for better or worse)? Describe the incident. How did you feel? How did you react then? With the benefit of hindsight, would you do anything differently?

~ Simon criticizes parents for not setting good language examples for their children. Recount an episode in your life that confirms or rebuts Simon’s claim. Have your home experiences particularly helped or hindered your use of language?

Rhetorical Task:
To earn credit for this assignment, you must complete the following rhetorical task. Papers that don’t incorporate the task will be returned for revision.

•          Include an underlined thesis statement that encapsulates your main point. For this assignment it will probably be to state your position and tie it to your story.

Credit Checklist:
The paper . . .

•          makes clear whether you are more of a descriptive or prescriptive linguist

•          develops a specific example in some sort of narrative form

•          makes some connection between your narrative and an idea from one of our readings (provide citation as described in the style sheet)

•          accomplishes the week’s rhetorical task

•          is free of major sentence-level errors (fragment and comma-spliced sentences)

•          is >300 words (around two pages), typed, double spaced