The Silenced Dialogue

I actually connected to this reading more than I thought I would. Writing papers has always been a huge issue for me. All my life I have heard "you write like you talk", "it's not bad but it's too casual". All my life I've always felt like I've had to use fancy words or else no one would take me seriously. I spend way too much time looking at a thesaurus than I do saying what I want to say, what feels more comfortable. I spend way too much time worrying about what they think about what I'm saying. In school we're taught not to plagiarize, but to put ideas in our own words (and rightfully so). However, there's a right and a wrong way to do so. You asked for my words, my thoughts, my ideas. Why should they get to tell me how I can and can't speak those words? Who are they? People in power. The transcript between the teacher and her student really struck me. When the teacher asks her student about the text of the book he read, he says that they are not using the "right way" to talk and in school you get points taken off if you don't talk the "right way". He says that it shouldn't matter how you talk as long as its understood. Who is to say what's right and wrong. This video is a spoken word by Jamila Lyiscott explaining all of the different ways that she has to speak depending on what situation she's put in. I love spoken words and I just thought that this video really fit in well with the piece.