Featured Presentation: A Radical New Way to Control the English Language

Thursday, October 1 — 10:00am-10:30am

George Gopen, Professor Emeritus, Practice of Rhetoric at Duke University

The writing instruction we received in school was inadequate to prepare us for writing in the adult, professional world. We were taught how to avoid grammatical errors and how to write a 5-sentence paragraphs and 5-paragraph essays. None of that is of use when we try to write grant applications or technical manuals. The writing advice we get (if any) as adults is equally inadequate: We are told to avoid the passive, to keep our sentences short, and to write the way we speak – all very, very bad advice. In school, the important person where writing was concerned was the writer. In the real world, the important person becomes the reader. Concerning the quality of a piece of professional writing, one simple question dominates: Did the reader get delivery of what the writer was trying to send? My address explores what happens when consider the English language from the perspective of the reader.

About

George D. Gopen is Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Rhetoric at Duke University, where he has held appointments in the Department of English and the Law School for 30 years. He holds both a law degree and a Ph.D. in English from Harvard University, which he achieved simultaneously. His publications include four books and fifty articles. His latest two books (Expectations and The Sense of Structure) explore his "Reader Expectation Approach" to the English language, which is revolutionizing the way in which writing is perceived and taught, both for students and for professionals.