For shits and giggles, let’s switch it up today. Instead of having a ton of things going through my head and writing about them as they come up, I have an outline on my notepad that I’m going to try and follow. Let’s hope that it will yield better results in flow and communication of ideas.
Linguistics- the study of a language. Albeit, as I have noted, it is the extensive study of a language. My particular beast is English. Which brings us to my English Linguistics class- the beast of all my classes. Yes, I have a 5 hour stint in broadcast journalism tomorrow, and I have nightly assignments to follow my beat in entertainment for my entertainment journalism class as well. I have an English writing course that I feel excited about, without having written too much in it as of yet. But the linguistics course is the real meat of my experience here at the Cal State.
It is the meat because it will be the one that bears the most on my shoulders. I could simply brush it off as just another collateral requirement and put in as little work as possible. However, I don’t believe I can allow myself to do that. You see, i play around with words. In writing, I look for the best words to communicate an idea to the reader, and in turn hope that the reader can visualize the idea that I’m projecting. So instead of a cold room, I can call it a very cold room. Or I can call it a frigid room. Or I can call it a room likened to an ice box. Or I can call it an extension of some frozen hell raised up from the earth and planted in my living room. But this is creative writing, and I feel like I am putting a ton of effort into finding something that to those more educated in the forms and functions of English language would be a cinch.
It was once told to me that once I have the basics of a certain style down, then I could take it and run with it, play with it, and see what happens. For the longest time I was getting away with my writing without fully knowing the rules of structure and form and function. I think I know how I got through too- because much of my work was referenced material. Not that I stole from certain authors, but I was capable of reiterating their ideas or coming up with thesis that reflected some of their research. I quoted their books, articles, journals, and my instructors were all too happy to give me A’s for my deconstruction of this idea or that article or this person’s commentary or that guy’s blog post. It was a wondrous existence, wherein even doctors of certain prestigious universities knew I wasn’t pulling mere shit from my ass. I may have taken liberties with the subject matter, but my sources were solid, and my assessment of the facts was on point. With this they could not argue.
I used the rules of writing without really knowing what they were. Why? Because they were part of my training. Sometimes you are given the instruction, “if this happens, push this button and it will all go away.” That’s how I feel with English- I was always taught the button, but never was it explained to me what it does to make whatever is happening, go away. In this case, it’s a lack of understanding that needs to go away. The best way to tackle this is through an effective communication. If the communication takes advantage of all the nuances of a language to get a message with the utmost amount of clarity, would you not want to have that communication style part of your repertoire?
Hence, I am struggling like a boxer trying to cut weight before a fight. My Linguistics class is light years ahead of where I am when it comes to structures of sentences and word forms and functions and morphemes and the whole rest of the 9 yards. But, as I’ve said, I’m not going to blow this off like I’m some dumb high-schooler. Not anymore. If I am to master the art of language, I need to have these basics down so I might know what I can play with and how I can play with it. If I can’t do this, then I’ve gotten myself into the wrong profession. However, I’m not of the opinion that all is over. I have confidence that at some point during the semester, I will have the utmost amount of myself able and ready to tackle the challenges in that class. But, for now, I’m certainly struggling.
I mean, I can summarize things written in an article because my reading comprehension is pretty high. I can gather the main points from Beowulf and Chaucer without too much wincing, and later authors like Shakespeare are a breeze. The problem lies in my communication of original thought. Not repeating what’s already been established, but of relaying something refreshing, something new. Sometimes I don’t talk about the hell that was frozen over in my living room, I just say it’s cold in here. Sometimes I don’t like having me coming after another person so I say me first, then the other person- “will be going to the strip club this evening,”
Of course- these are rules for English grammar rather than linguists rules. The linguists rules look to find the order of a language and break it down for us. But they know every nook and cranny of how it broke down from generation to generation, just by analyzing the phonetics. We say “can I” versus “may I”. Grammatical choice. We say “Turn up!” instead of “Let’s turn up!” We break grammar rules all the time, but we don’t know we’ve broken them. So now for this class- I’m sure I’ve broken quite a few rules. Yet, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get this stuff integrated into my memory, which should have been done way back in High School
Still, I question the energy I devote to this. Will mastery of the language make me a better writer? Will the ability be on the stage and sets before television crews and home and theater audiences, or will it serve to a more academic purpose. I can hardly imagine a future where I’m utilizing all that I have learned in this class to make a life better for myself, because it seems so far off. Yet, It’s only February, the 3rd week of class. I shouldn’t be stressing my mind so much on this, should I? The solution is already out there- I just need to grab it, hold it, and dig in.
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