As many of you may be familiar with Ben's blog, 'Der Sankt Speaks'. In a recent blog entry titled, 'How Insulting!’ somebody under a pseudonym (fictitious name), 'Deaf Philosophy' posted a lengthy comment, which I thought was well thought out. S/he appeared to be coherent (able to speak clearly and logical) and clarified (less confusing and clearer) where the real issue lies. I copied and pasted the whole comment from Ben's blog. What I hope this will achieve is to clear up the confusion about the ongoing issues in the deaf blogosphere. 'Deaf Philosophy’ why it's never a wise idea to treat your readers with disparages. I have never treated any of my readers in such a manner even if they complained which they rarely do. In fact, I rarely get denigrated (unfairly criticized) on my blog or through the e-mail. I occasionally get fan mail if you can believe that. By addressing your readers with deference (humble submission and respect), the readers will make their reverences (deep respect).Deaf Philosophy Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
This “guy” misses the point. I think he just wanted to boost his own self-esteem and ego by telling the world that there are people who think he uses fancy words.
My experience and approach is completely different. If someone said they don’t understand the word/idea I just used, it means that *I* failed to communicate effectively. What I do is change the word and idea around to help the person understand what I mean. Many times I don’t understand people and that includes people of all levels of intelligence and even non-english users.
Even people with a Ph.D degree have a hard time understanding my writing and I did not use any “fancy” words. I’m in philosophy, I don’t go for fluff in my writing, I just get to the point. If people want to do flowery crap in their writing, that’s fine but those people will lose their audience and message easily. I wrote a heavy metaphysical paper for my anthropology class and I was asked to use less metaphysics even though ALL the words I used were pretty straightforward.
A language is used to convey your “message” effectively, what would be the point of speaking latin to only english users and then tell those people to look it up in a latin dictionary? I applaud those people who always ask people what they mean and what they are trying to say regardless of worrying about looking stupid. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers and the guy gave a stupid answer, even a dictionary won’t help anyone understand what you are trying to say clearly.
This happens all the time in philosophy, a room full of philosophy professors will still ask each other what they mean, what they are trying to clarify and so forth.. so we have this problem on all levels anyways.
Source: 'How Insulting!' - Der Sankt Speaks
As some of you may have noticed, I filled in simple definitions after each word that some would consider being a 'big word'. Now you may get the idea what 'Deaf Philosophy' is talking about. A message needs to be conveyed effective. It doesn't mean you have to dumb down your writing like many people are trying to claim to be the case. You can make your point come across with a stronger impact if you want to reach a larger audience; you have to change the word and the idea around as 'Deaf Philosophy' said in order to communicate. What I'm saying is that I don't dumb down my writing; I just change the word and the idea around to convey the message effectively. I don't see the point in using words that many people aren't familiar with and weaken the impact of the message. It does make a difference; at least it does for me.
To re-quote 'Deaf Philosophy'...If people want to do flowery crap in their writing, that’s fine but those people will lose their audience and message easily.
In a sense, it's not far from the truth. People will know when it's being done on purpose. Pretentiousness (attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture than is actually possessed) isn't something you can easily conceal (hide).
It's a never-ending cycle; there will always be people like that. They come and go.
Feel free to express yourself. If you have any questions to ask me, you can do it here or just e-mail me. I'm looking forward to reading some of your thoughts on the subject.
Have a good day.
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