June Casagrande Grammar Snob

Amy Tan's goal has changed slightly. While the Author wants to show the effect language has on one's daily life and how we perceive others who are different, she also wants to show how the language barrier affects our society overall.

Throughout David Foster Wallace’s essay, he describes a SNOOT, a figure of an intellectual. A SNOOT is basically a grammar nazi. However, a SNOOT sees the phrase, “grammar nazi,” as self-mocking and a dysphemism. In his essay, “Authority and American Usage,” Wallace says, “A SNOOT can be loosely defined as somebody who knows what dysphemism means and doesn’t mind letting you know it” (390). Wallace then introduced a SNOOTlet, the child version of a SNOOT. In his essay, “Authority and American Usage,” Wallace says, “The elementary school SNOOTlet is one of the earliest identifiable species of academic geekoid and is duly despised by his peers and praised by his teachers” (411). The SNOOTlet is actually deficient in Language Arts

Carol Karlsen 's The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England provides a sociological and anthropological examination of the witchcraft trends in early New England. By examining the records, Karlsen has created what she suggests was the clichéd 'witch ' based on income, age, marital status, etc. She argues that women who had inherited or stood to inherit fairly large amounts of property or land were at particular risk, as they "stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to the next." These women, Karlsen suggests, were targeted largely because they refused to accept "their place" in colonial society.

In the article titled “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why,” published by Harvard Business Review on July 20, 2012, Kyle Weins claims as a business owner of two companies largely reliant on writing that good writers are more intelligent, are better at doing things completely unrelated to writing, and pay more attention to detail. Wein’s overall goal of the article is to show the connection between employees with good grammar and good work ethic. Wein’s is backing up his zero tolerance approach to bad grammar by showing these correlations. Potential employees may have prompted him to write the article because they felt his grammar test was unfair. He wants to describe how he is using the test to eliminate unqualified employees. As a busy businessman the article is a way of addressing all the people that do not agree with his approach at the same time.

Florence Kelley was a women’s rights activist who gave a speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in the summer of 1905 on the topic of child labor. This speech on child labor offers insight to the harsher lives that some children have to carry in comparison to some adults due to no child labor laws. Kelley’s writing was meant to persuade the audience to improve child labor laws and safety by appealing to pathos.

The concept The Poisonwood Bible is trying to bring to recognition is that there are always multiple perspectives to any story. The usage of several narrators allows one to see the same story from different points of views that all differ. It also displays how storytelling is a reflection of a person’s experiences and lives, because one’s experiences shape their perspectives or biases. For example, Adah’s more analytical perspective allows her to analyze situations life presents to her in a deeper level such as her ideas on the circle of life and Africa. This perspective allows her to be successful in her career field as well. Contrary to this, Rachael’s cocky and shallow perspective does not allow her to analyze situations from a deep perspective. For example, she is always thinking short term, such as when she brags about how she had several husbands. Her attitude, does allow her to be successful in her business. It does nothing to better her character, though, causing her to be the most uneducated and naive of the three. The usage of multiple narrators could symbolize the fact that the situation in the Congo also has multiple perspectives and is a complicated web, as life is.

Nancy Mairs, a feminist writer who has Multiple Sclerosis, defines the terms in which she interest the most with the world. Nancy Mairs will name herself a cripple and not be by others. She will choose a word that represents her reality for example in the beginning of her story she mentioned about her being in the bathroom trying to come up with a story about cripples. She was in the handicap bathroom and when she tried to open the door she fell, landing fully clothed on the toilet seat with her legs splayed in front of her and she said “the old beetle -on-it’s back routine.” not only does she make fun of herself, but she also has a great sense of humor. The little details she puts on her stories will make you picture it in your mind. She just doesn't want her readers to see her as a handicap person, but a person who wants the world to see her as a tough woman. One whom the fates, gods, viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her disabilities.

The way a person speaks is a direct link to a person’s culture and the environment which he or she was raised in. A person’s language, skin color as well as economic status influences the way he or she is perceived by others. Lisa Delpit and eleven other educators provide different viewpoints on how language from students of different cultures, ethnicity, and even economic status can be misinterpreted due to slang and dialect or nonstandard English by the teachers as well as his or her own peers.

In the article, “Shitty First Drafts”, from the book “Bird by Bird”, the author, Anne Lamott, clarifies a common misconception that people have about good writers and their writing process. Good writers don’t just write fully formed passages when they first start writing; they develop their ideas by making imperfect first drafts, which she implies,”…I know some very great writers…Not one of them can writes elegant first drafts” (1). Lamott introduces her claim through her thesis statement, “Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts” and “All good writers write them”(1); this is introduced in the first paragraph. The main points that she is trying to make is that, to produce a great writing

With this specific thought in mind, I delved into the writing of Riki Anne Wilchins in an attempt to rummage through her words to find her values, intentions, and modes of persuasion while also looking to see how she chose to effectively project her writing to potential readers. In Riki Anne Wilchins' writing “What Does It Cost to Tell the Truth” Wilchins addresses a multitude of issues caused not only by transgender stereotypes, but all forms of stereotyping.

Gee, James P. “Literary, Discourse, and Linguistics.” Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 481-495. Print.

This passage is from the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein. The overall purpose of this book is to inform the readers of the stereotypes girls must face as adolescents. The author is able to express her opinion as a parent and give advice to other parents with daughters of how to overcome the stereotypes so girls do not succumb to the girly culture that bombards the media. The book touches on Orenstein’s role as a mother to her daughter Daisy and the challenges she faces due to all the stereotypes for young girls. This passage focuses on girls conforming to the stereotype regarding pink is the color for females.

Social media has inspired a stronger set of issues in the lives of the current youth, according to Shannon Purtle in “Why Social Media Should Be Left Alone”, specifically issues dealing with authenticity. In a time when social media is on the rise, Purtle addresses the lacking of real connections and endangerments surrounding magnified typical teenage issues caused by those programs within the lives of young Americans. As a teenager, or young adult, there is an immense amount of exposure to assimilation from one self-conscious teen to the next unsure teen. Through using satirical strategies such as an ironic tone, ridiculous and contradicting rhetoric, ironic questions and analogies to common phrases, Purtle

In American society, if American’s do not look the same as society’s ideal image, then they are not considered normal. Those non normal American’s are treated as if they have a plague and are left on the outside always looking in. The people who have something that sets them apart from the norm, such as a disability, should not be treated differently than the people who are society’s version of normal. In “Disability” by Nancy Mairs, the problem of judging a book by its cover discusses individual examples relating to people who have a disability.

Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or, Love in a Maze is about unnamed young woman who changes her identity multiple times in order to maintain a relationship with the man she loves. Her high standing social class does not allow her to freely communicate with men. This issue prompts her to disguise herself as prostitute for the chance to be with Beauplaisir. The restrictions set by society heighten her curiosity and desire for love—it becomes her biggest yearning. The extreme measures this woman takes throughout the story demonstrates how society made finding a sensual relationship extremely difficult, if not impossible, for high classed women during the eighteenth century.