Language A Reader for Writers

Read. Write. Oxford.

Language: A Reader for Writers focuses on the central and complex topic of language, exploring the reality of our multilingual world and the complexities of writing in a multilingual college classroom. It takes on key issues including the nature of language; the effects of globalization; endangered languages; multilingualism and language diversity; language, politics, and power; language and writing; language correctness; and the ways in which language shapes identity. The articles embody a range of experiences, ideas, and strategies-from scientific research and powerful arguments to poetic reflection and playful celebration.

Developed for the freshman composition course, Language: A Reader for Writers includes an interdisciplinary mix of public, academic, and scientific reading selections, providing students with the rhetorical knowledge and compositional skills required to participate effectively in discussions about language, learning, and the writing process.

Language: A Reader for Writers is part of a series of brief single-topic readers from Oxford University Press designed for today's college writing courses. Each reader in this series approaches a topic of contemporary conversation from multiple perspectives.

Gita Dasbender is a Senior Faculty Associate in English and Coordinator of Second Language Writing at Seton Hall University.

1. What is language for?
Lera Boroditsky, "How Does Our Language Shape The Way We Think?" Edge
Susanne Langer, "Language and Thought" Ms Magazine
Arika Okrent, "Body Language" Lapham's Quarterly
Anassa Rhenisch, "Alien Languages: Not Human" Science In My Fiction
Julie Sedivy, "Is Your Language Making You Broke and Fat? How Language Can Shape Thinking and Behavior (And How It Can't)" Discover
2. Multilingualism
Robert Lane Greene, "Which Is The Best Language to Learn?" More Intelligent Life
John McWhorter, "Which Languages Should Liberal Arts Be About in 2010?" The New Republic
Alexander Arguelles, "Experience: I Can Speak 50 Languages" The Guardian
Adam Pulford, "Words are Wind" OUPblog
Eddie Dean, "Klingon as a Second Language" Washington City Paper
Sarah L. Higley, "Audience, Uglossia, and CONLANG: Inventing Languages on the Internet" Media/Culture Journal
3. Language and Writing
Linda Flower, "Writing for an Audience" Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing
Emily Badger, "Plain English Urged to Limit Federal Bureaucracy" Pacific Standard
Rachel La Corte, "Washington State Sees Results From 'Plain Talk' Initiative" The Olympian
Ellen Collett, "The Art of the Police Report" Writer's Chronicle
Anne Trubek, "We Are All Writers Now" More Intelligent Life
4. Language and Correctness
Robert Lane Greene, "On Language Nerds and Nags" More Intelligent Life
Kyle Wiens, "I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why." Harvard Business Review
Sue Shellenbarger, "This Embarrasses You and I*" Wall Street Journal
Alison Griswold, "Your Bad Grammar At Work: What's the Problem?" Forbes
Linton Weeks, "R Grammar Gaffes Ruining the Language? Maybe Not." National Public Radio
Kate Dailey, "Are Language Cops Losing War Against "Wrongly" Used Words?" BBC
Robert Lane Greene, "OMG, ETC." More Intelligent Life
5. Language and Gender
Jason Davis, "The Soccer Mom" Run of Play
Robert Lane Greene, "Hey Dude" More Intelligent Life
Wendy Kaminer, "Let's Talk About Gender, Baby" Prospect
Amy Reiter, "Why Being a Jerk at Work Pays" The Daily Beast
Nathalie Rothschild, "Sweden's New Gender-Neutral Pronoun: Hen" Slate Magazine
Mark McCormack, "Don't Call Me Homophobic: The Complexity of 'That's So Gay'" Open Democracy
6. Language and Race
James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" New York Times
John McWhorter, "Speaking Swahili for Kwanzaa?" The Root
Bassey Ikpi, "Why The Whole 'Poor Africa' Thing Isn't Cool" xoJane
Daniel Hernandez, "Spanglish Moves Into Mainstream" Boston Globe
Leticia Salais, "Saying 'Adios' to Spanglish" Newsweek
Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, "Regarding Spanglish" Newspaper Tree
Jaswinder Bolina, "Writing Like a White Guy" Poetry
7. Language and Politics
William Lutz, "Doubts About Doublespeak" State of the Language
George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" Horizon
Alexis Madrigal, "Why Are Spy Researchers Building a 'Metaphor Program'?" The Atlantic
Neal Whitman, " 'Kinetic' Connections" Visual Thesaurus
Julie Sedivy, "Are You a Mac or a Mac User? How the Language of Identity Persuades" Psychology Today
8. Fighting Words
Rebecca Solnit, "When The Media Is the Disaster" Guernica Magazine
Susan Benesch, "Words as Weapons" World Policy Journal
Julie Sedivy, "Politically Correct Animal Language" Psychology Today
Shani Hilton, "The Dirtiest of Words on Capitol Hill: 'Racism'" Colorlines.com
Mary Giovagnoli, "'Anchor Baby' Added to New American Heritage Dictionary"
and "American Heritage Dictionary Redefines 'Anchor Baby' Term as 'Offensive' and 'Disparaging'" Immigration Impact
Mark Peters, "Why Personhood is Powerful" Boston Globe
9. The language of globalization
Henry Hitchings, "'Conquer English to Make China Strong': The Globalization of English" The Language Wars
Julie Traves, "The Church of Please and Thank You." This Magazine
Pallavi Polanki, "Operation Mind Your Language" Open Magazine
Shehzad Nadeem, "Accent Neutralisation and a Crisis of Identity in India's Call Centres" The Guardian
Gloria Gibbons, "Are We All Turning 'Globish"? Pharmaceutical Market Europe
Jin Zhao, "Oh My Lady Gaga! This Is So Gelievable!": Chinglish Entering Globish? Things You Don't Know About China
10. Endangered languages
Jonathan Amos, "Digital Tools 'To Save Languages'" BBC
Joanna Eede, "You can't Google it and get it back" Survival International
Roy Boney, "The Indomitable Language" Indian Country Today
Hugo Cardoso, "The Death of An Indian Born Language" Open Magazine
Stephen Pax Leonard, "Death by Monoculture" University of Cambridge
Russ Rymer, "Vanishing Voices" National Geographic
Appendix: Researching and Writing About Language