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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page reaction paper to an essay by Susan Madera, "One Voice," on learning standard English. Madera records how the language of her upbringing and youth, her "neighborhood" language, differs from standard English and how this placed her outside of mainstream society. There has been a great deal written concerning racial prejudice and the issue of using standard English. Madera's insightful essay shows that there is considerable prejudice towards users of non-standard language, regardless of race and that the use of standard English acts as a gatekeeper to mainstream society. Bibliography lists 3 sources (but is incomplete).
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khsmov.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
of mainstream society. There has been a great deal written concerning racial prejudice and the issue of using standard English. Maderas insightful essay shows that there is considerable prejudice towards
users of non-standard language, regardless of race and that the use of standard English acts as a gatekeeper to mainstream society. Madera makes explicit distinctions between the language she
grew up speaking and standard English. She recounts how it did not make sense to her that a word that used everyday--"aint"--was not even considered to be a word (Madera
79). Similarly, Madera recalls being embarrassed when the hairdresser teased her about "taking" a haircut, a colloquialism used Maderas neighborhood, "Little Italy." Experiences, such as these, taught Madera that
to use non-standard English placed one on the outside of society. This caused her to look on her bilingual ability as a "curse" rather than a "blessing." This caused Madera
to work very hard at perfecting her language skills. By high school, even though she felt that she did not speak correctly, her mastery of written English was recognized by
her English teacher. This teacher offered Madera a position on the school newspaper. When Madera protested, the teacher pointed out that her written work was entirely in standard English (Madera
80). This teachers observation and encouragement gave Madera the confidence she needed to join the school newspaper staff. In her conclusion, Madera makes the point that standard English comes
easily to her when she is writing, even though she implies that using standard English when she speaks is still difficult for her. She states that when she writes, the
"words come from deep inside of me...I may speak two languages but I write with one voice" (82). As this suggests, Madera has not only mastered the rules of
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