One of the most common myths about writing is that there is just one correct way to write and speak. According to Anjali Pattanayak, who states in the book Bad Ideas about Writing’s article “There is One Correct Way of Writing and Speaking” there is no such thing as a correct way of writing and speaking. Because thinking that there is only one correct way to write enforces inequality by leading you to believe that King English is the only correct way to write. Anjali Pattanayak stated a better way of thinking writing in “There is one correct way of writing and speaking”, and Lynn Z. Bloom stated a better way of thinking writing in the book “Freshman Composition is a Middle-Class Enterprise.” They provided better ideas such as writing for a specific purpose and audience, teaching writing as a cultural and social activity, and using various linguistic choices for minority groups to appeal to various audiences.
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In Lynn Bloom’s article “Freshman Composition is a Middle-Class Enterprise” she claims that most American autobiographies reflect middle-class white virtue. These autobiographies are full of success stories in which students might believe that in order to be successful, the instruction and the advice of middle-class teachers must lead to the improvement of oneself, he considered it as a wrong reason (Bloom 668). American autobiographies tell us that if we follow the middle-class virtues or culture, we will end up being successful. This misinformation leads students with smaller dialects to think that how themselves or their families, and members in their community speak and act is bad ideas wrong by comparison. It sends the message that who they are and where they come from is somehow undermined. Pattnayak argues that, even though students from nonstandard dialects are gaining education, they are still facing barriers in terms of culture, language, and literacy. This barrier is because of how the middle-class teacher set the values of their culture (pattnayak 83). Teachers also punish lower-class students for not being more like the middle class.
Saying one correct form of writing is also troubling because it assumes linguistic differences are the result of an error (pattnayak 85). We can look at Ebonics, Ebonics typically diverge from standard American English when spoken to people with a lower level of education. It is not an unacceptable form of standard language, so it devalues their identities
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According to Anjali Pattanayak “There is One Correct Way of Writing and Speaking,” she claimed that idea there is one correct way writing is a bad idea and should be replaced by better ideas. A better idea would be adopting different linguistic choices to appeal to different audiences. The advantage of these better ideas will allow writers to carefully plan and adopt what you say to the level of understanding and background of the listeners. In Lynn Z. Bloom’s article “Freshman Composition is a Middle-Class Enterprise” points out that education doesn’t have to be a banking concept in which, the middle-class teacher reflects their white culture into students, she called it oppression on literacy (Bloom 669). The better idea she proposed is to transform that structure so that they can become more of themselves. So, if we create a teaching system that will treat writing more cultural and social activity it will be a better idea. Writing should be evaluated by the context they are talking or writing about because there are people who come from different backgrounds who don’t speak the king’s English. Writing main concerns should be conscious of critical thinking.
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In conclusion, several authors presented a better idea that could replace the misconception that there is only one correct way of writing and speaking. Bloom and Pattnayak stated that changing the structure of education in which minority groups can be themselves and adopting different linguistic choices could replace the bad belief which is there is only one way of writing. They stated that implementing these ideas will give students from different backgrounds a fair chance in the academic world.
Work cited
Pattanayak, Anjali “There is One Correct Way of Writing and Speaking” Bad Ideas about Writing’s Edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe, pp.82-87 https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf
Bloom, Lynn Z. “Freshman Composition is a Middle-Class Enterprise” National Council of Teachers of English pp.654-680