Writing What's Right

Today we're discussing the importance of questioning the dictionary. 

I took a class last semester about the history of the English Language. This class wasn't at all what I thought it was but I did learn that language changes locally, and that's why we have branches and accents from the same language. But today, when the world is so connected online, language is changing faster than ever. There's new abbreviations, new slang, new word definitions and it's changing rapidly. Now there's a million tiny differences that don't really matter, but they also kind of do. So which is it? Lets rapid fire some examples.

I once posted an argument with my Canadian roommate about whether it was correct to call them 'colored pencils' or 'pencil crayons.' And in the comments someone corrected me on my spelling of 'color' and said it was actually 'colour.' Which I supposed it depends on where you get your language. In both arguments neither of us were inherently wrong. We just grew up with different names for things and different spellings. I happen to live in America so I have that red squiggle under 'colour' but not 'color.' But we both spoke English. It's like 'gray' and 'grey' I've seen both. 

Spelling may differentiate between countries but commas seem to matter more in this cases because it can change the meaning. When you make a sort of exclamation statement like the usual example of "Lets eat Grandpa!" Versus, "Lets eat, Grandpa!" I wouldn't recommend eating Grandpa. But phrases like "Well does it really matter?" Versus "Well does it really matter?"

Capitalizing, when does it matter? Nobody seems to know, because nobody seems to care if you say 'french fry' but for some reason it can't be belgian waffles. Is it just the niche branding of the Belgian waffle? To people in Belgium even eat their own waffles? Because the French don't seem to care about their precious French fries. I understand the need to call it Kentucky Fried Chicken, it's a restaurant brand at that point. But then there's german pancakes. It seems that french fries are the only ones that get to break this rule.

But the thing that gets to me a lot is acronyms. When people use new acronyms, please tell us what it means first before using it repeatedly. I had a job making sandwiches in high school and I was so confused why everyone was going to the "Dijon Mayo Vinaigrette" to get their driving licences. (It took me a while of secret hunting to find out it was actually "Department of Motor Vehicles." Where did the 'O' go?)

It's changing so fast we have have entire dictionaries for slang now. The point is to be be as accurate as you can but language is changing rapidly so questioning language and the formality of the dictionary is important. There are rules with many things but consistency is key.