In these readings I was once again introduced to an idea that I had never considered or put much thought into before (my experience in graduate school has been eye-opening to say the least). The line from Mikhail Bakhtin “Language lies on the borderline between oneself and the other. The word in language is half someone else’s” kind of blew my mind. The idea that words take on different meanings in different contexts is especially prevalent because we experience it a lot with internet culture and micro-trends in speech and language. Duffy’s section on ethics made me consider this idea in a new way. Ethics and writing go hand in hand. Especially the questions “what kind of writer do I want to be?” and “what effect will my writing have?” which can ultimately help you identify yourself as a writer (which is or should be always evolving) and also to identify your audience. We are faced with so many ethical decisions in the current world especially with advances in technology such as AI that it can feel overwhelming to be sure as a writer you are making the ethical choices you feel strongly about. Brooke & Grabill’s point of “meaning doesn’t just happen” made me pause and think about what that means to me. I had to apply meaning to their words through this phrase. To me, that point means that as a writer you must create feeling and meaning behind your words. At the very least the writer should understand their audience enough to convey their message. The section on the different tools writers can utilize in different media specifically spoke to me. The tools in which we use to write like a pen or a keyboard changes the experience of the reader and the writer. The comparison to hashtags on Twitter versus if we saw that in a novel and how that would not be the same experience was interesting because I feel like some authors in recent time have played around with using things we would maybe see in a digital format in an analog setting. Sometimes academic writing can be difficult to digest, at least for me. In some cases, I find that writers of these passages use language that is only inclusive to the community that understands their jargon leaving an entire population of people feeling excluded to the information. The Carter text was long and drawn out but it did bring up good points. I personally do not believe in being an “expert” writer. I think you can be an “experienced” writer but there is no such thing as being an expert in writing. I think this piece helps to highlight a common issue I have with academics. My issue is the idea that knowing something automatically means you know how to apply it. In my undergraduate studies, I majored in public relations but that didn’t mean I knew how to apply it immediately. I think the majority of people learn by doing so it’s important to teach that. You can retain all of the information you want but the application of the knowledge is an entirely different thing. A lot of the time in academics we are talked at and are not taught to exercise the muscles necessary to apply the information.
Language, Ethics, and Expertise
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