Why Language Rules

Before people begin to play games, they ask what the rules are. If the game comes with instructions, all the players need to understand the language in which the rules are written if they plan to compete.

Take texting, for instance. While texting is fine for casual conversations with trusted friends, no one wants to see game instructions written in the shorthand version of letters subbing for words. Besides games, there are usually instructions for setting up new equipment. I wouldn’t want to see LOL at the end of the instructions, especially if instead of laughing out loud the manufacturer meant lots of luck. Actually, either message would be bad news for me if I expect to be able to use the new equipment because I’d need lots of luck and probably wouldn’t be laughing out loud as I plugged in ten different weirdly color-coded connections.

Another primary reason that formal - grammatically correct - English is necessary in life is that legal contracts are written using it. I am certain that you’d never sign a contract to buy a house or car if it was written in the new shorthand of text messaging, and you wouldn’t sign up for a job with the job description ending in BTW (by the way) with all kinds of hideous additions or subtractions to whatever it is you thought the work would be.

Communication isn’t always easy, but if there is not a system agreed upon for meanings, communication becomes impossible or leads to misunderstanding. In circumstances where your livelihood or safety or security depends on clearly written communication, the language best used is formal, grammatically correct English (not at all like times when someone suddenly yells “Shark!”).

Among your friends as you text, you have probably developed certain abbreviations that mean what they mean only to the group involved. That’s fine for everyday talk, but no one wants to meet up with a cartel of law makers who have devised a coded language in which to write laws for the rest of us (although sometimes it already seems that way). Having a clear, well-defined language means that we have mutually accepted words and meanings that don’t change with the people using them.

There’s a time and place for different styles of communication. Beyond getting a great grade on your next essay by adhering to the rules governing formal English, all of your life ahead will be made better when you read a contract and know exactly what you are signing, when you open a package to hook up Wndws Nxt VIII and get it to run properly, or when you play a new game with your family or friends with no one arguing about how to play. Texting has its place in informal settings; but to manage all the intricacies of the real world, it’s a smart move to learn formal English and use it. It’s not a smart move to write an essay using slang or text and turn it in to a professor who expects, demands even, a clearly written, grammatically correct paper.

BTW….you truly don’t want to see MEGO (my eyes glaze over) noted anywhere in the margins of a paper you’ve worked on for two weeks. Learning and using the rules that apply to formal English will prevent that from happening…IMHO (in my humble opinion).

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!