Shoulda Wrote Freely?

Recently we read a couple of reading that discussed students being able to write in their own dialect. We read three different articles, a primary source and two secondary sources. The primary source is “New SRTOL” which discusses how students be free to write in their own comfortable dialect. Jeff Zorn’s counter argument to “New SRTOL” is a secondary source and he states that students should not be able to write in their own language. VershawnAshanti Young’s article, “Should Writers use They Own English?” is also a secondary source. From these three readings I got to see many different opinions and thoughts about the controversial idea of allowing students to write in their own language. I had a hard time deciding how I felt about the topic.

After reading “New SRTOL”, I thought it was a great idea for students to learn and write in their own language. I thought, “Why not? If we wrote how we talked, it would be so much easier.” A quote from the reading I found powerful is, “We need to ask ourselves whetherour rejection of students who do not adopt the dialect most familiar to us is basedon any real merit in our dialect or whether we are actually rejecting the studentsthemselves, rejecting them because of their racial, social, and culturalorigins.” I found this interesting because the author connected a student’s ability to write in the universal language with rejection because of a student’s race. A person can immediately be associated with a certain race base off of just talking. Writing in their language will allow readers to immediately identify the writer’s race. This is where I am a little unsure about the point “New SRTOL” is trying to make.

Zorn disagrees with “New SRTOL”, and believes that students should only learn academic writing. English is the universal language and writing in English academically would make it easier to get a point across for everyone to be able to understand. Zorn also says that allowing students to write in their own language will put poor, nonwhite, and culturally marginalized students at a disadvantage. Although writing in surfer language, Ebonics, computer geek language, etc. would be very cool and fun, I do not think it is a great idea. Zorn’s argument wavered my agreement to “New SRTOL.” I feel like I agree with Zorn more than with “New SRTOL.” If students were allowed to write in their own language, only a certain group of people who also understand the language can understand. For example, I would not understand much of the computer geek language as much as I would understand academic writing. Writing in one’s natural and comfortable language may help one identify their identity, but it will prevent some students from progressing in their writing. I believe that if students write how they speak, they will never improve their writing skills because no one can correct them. If they were corrected, they would simply ignore it because, it is how they, themselves talk. Zorn also states that if students were suggested to write in their own language, they are less likely to get jobs or succeed in the future. White students, in which English is their first language, will be more likely to succeed than for example a Black student who writes in Ebonics. My more strongly agreed to Zorn’s argument after reading Young’s article.

Reading Young’s article I found it really weird to read. He wrote his article by the way he speaks. I felt that he over exaggerated and tried too hard trying to write in a certain language. If all writing were to be like Young’s article, I think it would be hard for every single person to understand the point the author is trying to get across.

I shoulda tried to write like how I talk, but that woulda been weird and totally go against what I wrote just now. I totally agree with Zorn and think that students should learn how to write like how we are being taught in schools to write now. If I write like I talk, you can understand me, but it doesn’t sound like a smart person.