Watch your mouth!
Why what we say matters.
I do my best to veer away from writing from a space of negativity, but one can only be so strong. My limit has been reached with this topic, the safety is off, my hair is down, no gloves and no holds barred – I recommend locking your seat belts and grabbing your thesaurus, we are doing this thing.
Here are the issues on the chopping block (are you ready?!):
1) Vocabulary
2) Usage
3) Phraseology and sentence structure
4) Context
We will only scratch the surface, no doubt, but better than that, we will find relief. See, language, written and spoken is understandably a casual practice, yet one that so necessitates nuance. Dangerous and inspiring discourse, no?
What tipped off all this was a recent conversation with a fellow business owner, a person who owns a VA and marketing agency who was sniffing me out to hire her firm for some things I have in construction backstage. A HUGE complement no doubt. Not that she wants my money, that is as green as what comes from any other source, but rather that any fool would desire to hook their wagon to this Mustang. That my business is seen as strong enough with a trajectory so positive.
The professional and agency in question are just that – strong. Nice track record and all that. I know well the effect and impact of the work she has and does provide for a good deal of folks in my circle.
OK, so what is the problem?
This:
Riots
Quarantine
I did my part
The vernacular of our days, yet inaccurate, lazy, and inexcusable. Throwing under the bus here a person just as vulnerable as any of us. The things she cites exist, but her USAGE is inappropriate as it is in too many sinful linguistic instances.
Equally and/or MORE telling is what words we abuse. Think about whom (perhaps yourself?!) is newly speaking in the media verbal linchpins of the year. What are the greatest hits in your topical talk space? And (here is the crux): what are you trying to SAY?!
1) Vocabulary: Is everything.
This is where you need to TRULY expand the canon. Though English does not often gift us with novel terminology - nouns and verbs specifically- it does offer a healthy buffet to graze.
Conventional media timelines do not account for inclusion or expansion of vocabulary. Words serve as sign posts, we become blind or deaf too the more frequently they are repeated. Fit for a readership inclined to browse and scan in the margins of their days. There is no binary assessment here. It is merely an is.
As a topic is unpacked, peaks, fades, and reemerges so does the language. What is so interesting is that though stories develop our language, the words we use to speak on them are rather stagnant. I am so impressed by how informed so many of you are. Bring your words along please!
The consequence is offense. Expansion of prejudice and assumption.
2) Usage: Tell me how you really mean
This goes back a bit to why we use the words we do and what we could really be saying. I say “could” not “are” as “are” assumes we know our true intentions when we talk. This is a cause for inquiry, no? One fun, or horrendous, task is to look over the emails you send today (choose at least 3 that contain three or more sentences) and highlight the words you use most frequently. Intro and exit terms, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are paramount. Focus on how you start sentences as well as “you” and “I” statements. Think frequency and be conscious of repetition within various and most notably the same communication of thread.
Now do the same for your most recent cover letter, client communication, or other professionally submitted document.
Hard questions come up, huh? I propose two:
1) Is that what you intended to say?
2) What are you demonstrating about yourself (yes this is the same damned legacy statement sentiment I so frequently repeat- no one is innocent of repetition?!)
To that point: Novelty is not the endgame. Repetition should have a purpose BEYOND familiarity or limitation is all.
3) Phraseology and sentence structure: A long term residence
Think: Culture. The way we present and place our words is architecture. Whether you wish to live in a room with crooked walls or a leaky bathtub and ill draining sink, if you place your plaster and paint in distraction, one day guests will arrive and judge you as such. Sure, you could put on a fresh coat of paint to place a rug over that sink hole. If that is how you choose to write and speak, giving focus only when you perceive the opportunity for judgement to be high and consequences terminal, you’re in for a heavy lift.
Building on this, you can fill a cheap apartment with great furniture, a/k/a vocabulary, but that wouldn’t make the walls any less thin. We cannot let the wind blow our verbiages all across the lawn. Such structuring means we must choose to utilize technique even in those stanzas that seem mundane. This could include taking more time with your writing and adapting to the idea that flare in our communications, a/k/a the creativity and heart, lives in the HOW we speak.
Words are like so many screws scattered on the workbench, or pastels in the box – the potential both overwhelming and dangerous. It is how the colors are added to the pallet that gives way to magic.
Do the same activity as above. Point your irises on the presentation of the language you lean on. That, and record some audio – a call or conversation and play with transcribing a sentence or two. What do you find? Are each bridge and highway the same? Could the map get you there a bit differently with greater effect?
4) Context: Get your hands out of your pockets
Many times, we think of context as timing. I disagree, in that “timing” too often begets permission. Not permission explicitly asked for, but permission implicitly sought. I advise myself and you to steer wide and clear of any practice or ethos that offers only two choices. We are animals of convenience, yet laziness and ambition are not compatible.
So, if we are to seek the “the best time” to speak on or approach a topic or thought-scape, how does context apply?
Answer: from necessity.
As you find yourself compelled to speak on or of a topic, about a need, or towards action, think not on if it is “right” but, rather, if it is just. Why is this angle in your mind to look at and bring forth? The decision to do so is in your need and impulse, and less on how it will be heard or read.
The fate of our language cannot be laid before our audience. The deaf and dull can nor could not ever take us (or facts) in anyway. We walk away with the conscience of our chosen conversations. If you desire to say a thing, think of and how and to whom you will present it. You may not be ready; that is not a proper thermometer. The keystone is not comfort. It is integrity.
Words are theology. Literally. They are how we learn of things historic and holy. The tools and commandments by which we live. A sin and fall from succession of servitude to our linguistic higher power. The truly Enlightened use grace to their own ends. Your vernacular can be the same. Should we be children of the word -creatures shackled and freed by speaking- this is your legacy. To tame and turn the temper and tenor of the noise you make – in air and on the page. What you say is that and more so: How you are heard.
