The Art of Sugarcoating

In the essay written by William Lutz, named Doubts About Doublespeak, the author describes doublespeak to be "a language which pretends to communicate but doesn't." To me, doublespeak means the same thing as sugarcoating. In this essay I learned that the four main kinds of doublespeak are euphemism, jargon, gobbledygook or bureaucratese, and inflated language. Some of these are harmful while some are useful and could be for the best.

He describes emphemism to be "a phrase designated to avoid a harsh or distasteful reality." In my opinion this is a good type of doublespeak. The reason being because this kind of doublespeak is used to not hurt people's feelings when being criticized. Some people are sensitive when dealing with certain issues and euphemism might help cope with that bad feeling of other people's bluntness. A perfect example of this doublespeak would be to say "I think we should take some time apart" instead of saying "I don't want to be with you anymore." It means the same thing but in a nicer way.

The second type of doublespeak he describes is jargon. Jargon means "the specialized language of trade." Lutz informs us that this allows people who work together to communicate with each other in a faster and more efficient way. The examples he provides for us are doctors and lawyers who have a certain codes t communicate with each other in their fields and if they were to speak to anyone outside of their working groups is where the jargon would take place. By speaking to someone in a way they do not understand. An example of this would be trying to speak to someone about something they don't know much about and assuming they had some kind of knowledge about it, because they might feel lost. It might be easier to work better using jargon, but when it comes to the real world, normal and easier ways to communicate would be more efficient so no one has to feel awkward, but I believe this type of doublespeak is harmless.

Gobbledygook or bureaucratese is the third type of doublespeak. The authors describes this doublespeak as "a matter of overwhelming the audience with words." This is when you load up a sentence of a phrase with many words in order to loose your audience in the procedure. This is often done in long documents or speeches with meanings that don't fully describe what they are about. This is a dangerous type of doublespeak because it can make you lose track and acquire false information because of the simple fact that you got lost in transaction.

And the last kind of doublespeak which I believe is also harmless is inflated language which is designed to make the ordinary sound extraordinary. This type of doublespeak isn't necessarily a bad thing but it is not the best thing, it depends under what circumstance you are using it under. For example, you might think it is okay when people use it to elevate their job title because that does not harm anyone, but when stores put out sale advertisements that sound really great but in reality are not, this becomes an issue to some people. I do not like going to a store where they are promising me great deals but I end up walking out with only a 10 percent discount.

This doublespeak to me sounds like a bunch of sugarcoating but that is what our world consists of. In our nature there is the dominant trait of being hypocrites, liars, and two faced even if we don't want to admit it. This is were sugarcoating comes in as part of being ourselves.

Knowledge in Knowing

What keeps this world together is the art of communication, and the key concept of communication is literacy. To be literate is to know how to read and write in order to express yourself. According to some psychologists, our population would be much less than what it is today if people were still illiterate. Literacy has helped us as human beings progress in life, live longer, get along, and most importantly become more knowledgeable.

Literacy can open many doors for you. Whether it’s to get by in this world, open your mind to more ideas, become educated, or be able to have your own thoughts about situations by analyzing, reading and writing is knowledge.

In an essay I read called Learning to Read and Write, by Fredrerick Douglas, he explains his journey to learning how to read and write as a slave. He discusses that gaining the knowledge of literacy was to finally be aware of what was happening around him. What he learns in his readings are the reasons to why they were keeping slavery around. He also explains to us that while he did something good, which was learning to read and write; he discovered horrible things that made him angry like reading about the slave situation. Douglass felt angry about the truth that surrounded him, but without knowing to read and write, he would have never figured out any of this. The concept I got from his story is that the more knowledge I gain, is the more I think, and the more I think is the more I contradict things in this world.

When you begin to wonder what is going on around you, and you finally come to an understanding of why certain things take place; you individualize yourself from other people and come up with your own conclusions and perspectives on situations. You gain more knowledge by doing this, and most knowledge comes from reading.

I have read all kinds of things from religion to scientific methods, giving me lots to think about. I start to contradict many ideas and make up my own conclusions. In history class, reading about the past has opened my eyes to why we do things the way we do today. It explained to me why we have so many laws and so much security where we live. Reading about past events, has helped me to see the right from wrong. When knowing the rules or laws, it is harder to break them. It also explains why we have education, freedom, and many more things we are guaranteed. In Political Science I learned many different political views. Only by reading what they stand for, and I have made a choice of which one I am closer to. I may not like to read and write, but I have gained a great amount of knowledge from it.

Of course people learn through experiences and observations, but the most common and the most used way is through reading. Being illiterate would have a huge impact on anyone’s life in today’s world, specially a teenager. We would not be able to e-mail, text, or be on these website that allow us to chat with friends and family in different countries, such as facebook, myspace, twitter, etc. Without reading one can not educate themselves or have the ability to progress in life. Success if mostly brought by education and to be educated, is to have gone to school and learned to read and write correctly. The key to succeed in life is education and literacy plays a big role in this stage of life.

Thinking Critically

Thinking is only part of the process of writing, but it is the most important one.You must concentrate on everything you are planning to focus on in your paper and add detail to the ideas you come up with. When I begin to write, I often take about 20 minutes to sit down, relax, look around me, and think about the point I'm trying to get across. I tend to over-think things most of the time, but I've come to realize this is a good thing. As I keep thinking, or get to my critical thinking stage, my beginning thoughts could change or become more detailed and firm. The point of critical thinking is to get the ideas in your head to reach their fullest potential, and to be able to expand on them. I might start out having a simple opinion on a subject, and this could lead to the discovery of a new belief for me. When it comes to politics and real world issues, I must do research before making any judgment. I read as much as I can to understand the main point, and to be able to make a potential belief. I like to base my thoughts off of proven facts or statistics. When listening to the media, I like to absorb their point of view, but at the same time not take it too seriously. Some media will make one side of the story sound better than it is, or favor them, so I believe in looking up other sources as well. I try to get information from more than 2 sources to make a more educated opinion. Other than using critical thinking is an essay or a blog, it is used on an every day basis. People may not notice this, but they are constantly thinking every single second of their lives. Basic everyday routines may cause thinking, something that stresses you out, or something that makes you happy. Whether some of their thoughts might get to the critical thinking stage or not, they are thinking about everything, and most of these thoughts get to the critical thinking stage. In this class, I would like to explore new ways to describe and make my thoughts sound more interesting, or to be able to capture my audience's attention and say things in a way everyone could relate. English 103 was specially created for critically thinking and analyzing which will help me enforce my writing skills and make my papers flow better. Critical thinking is needed to write a good paper. This will help my future career and my way of being. The first step to an educated life starts at learning to think things thoroughly. By learning to analyze my information better, I will be able to make better points, prove facts, and connect ideas to each other. Analyzing is the first step into deep thinking. You must master the art of analyzing before moving on to the bigger and better things, such as thinking critically.