The assumption in several posts that there can only be one variety of
English for every occasion flabbergasts me. Aren't we all masters of many
registers? In an earlier post I wrote that one language phrase "bugs the
hell out of me." I deemed that informal expression to be appropriate in this
forum, just as I would consider it inappropriate in many others. I know the
difference. You do too. Your language in writing journal papers is
identifiably different from your language in an email to colleagues and
different from your speech in conversing with friends while watching a
football game or in talking on the phone with your insurance agent. You have
no trouble making the adjustments. That is what being a sophisticated user
of language is all about.

I taught writing for forty years, and my goal was always for students to
master the principles of formal written English. There are accepted
conventions that educated people need to learn. Another goal was for them to
understand different registers and to know which is appropriate to use in
different situations. And yes, students can master that too.

When someone in this forum observes that an informal expression is
grammatical in a certain register or dialect, they are simply describing
what they observe and not making a moral judgment. Such an observatrion
doesn't mean that (1) they do not believe in teaching formal written
English, (2) they favor teaching students to write Ebonics, or (3) the world
is coming to an end.

Dick

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