Writing

63. Analyse the snippets of texts from the Times below and suggest how the industries mentioned will likely contribute to the development of English, or reversely which vocabulary is likely to go by the wayside in a couple of decades. Formalize it in a survey report. See the tips on survey report writing below.

1. As there are no grammatical rules that a Singlish speaker is obliged to follow the language is created afresh on the streets every day.

2. Fragmentation of society means that all of us belong to groups, subgroups, even sub-subgroups of one kind or another. As a result, all of us make use of a specialised vocabulary that can bemuse other people.

3. Blacksmiths and shepherds had a big working vocabulary, which is largely forgotten now. I own a copy of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, a 770-page tome full of arcane fishing terms. Now that the industry is all but gone (factory ships destroyed the resource), such words are unlikely to endure.

4. The specialised languages of music are a potent source of new terms, ones that often baffle. Song lyrics can be equally puzzling — except to those in the loop. The Jamaican dancehall singer Sean Paul’s single verse contains a mixture of apparent nonsense “chippy lippy lippy loo” or fairly standard English “let’s go together correspond woman”. You might respond that Paul is guilty of degrading the English language. But what’s more important is that he has the confidence to deploy and adapt Jamaican dialect for an international audience — and get rich in the process.

Our lingua franca, then, may turn out to be less of a standardising force than many of us fear. English speeds off the lips of millions of people every day. But what kind of English? The language is as elastic as a rubber band.

5. The phrase “behind the eight ball”, for instance, comes from the game of pool. It’s a position you want to avoid. Among US street gangs, though, “eight ball” is now said to mean an eighth of an ounce of cocaine. Just like hats, clothing and graffiti tags, words show other people who you are — or who you want to be. On the mean streets “going on line” has nothing to do with computers; it means entering a gang.

6. Computers, of course, are a rich lode of new idioms. Look at the burgeoning technology section of an American website, www.wordspy.com, that’s devoted to “lexpionage” — the ferreting out of new words and phrases. A recent entry is “crackberry”: a person who can’t stop using his or her BlackBerry.

True, nobody’s required to keep up with technology. But if we don’t, we may well suffer an acute sense of cognitive displacement. In short, language is evolving at unprecedented speed — evolving? Dude, it’s morphing.

Paragraph Plan for Survey Reports

Survey report

Introduction. State the purpose and content of the report or summarise the most important results of the survey.

Development. Summarise your information under suitable sub-headings.

Conclusion. Make recommendations / suggestions or end with a general conclusion.

When reporting the results of a survey the figures gathered should be included either in the form of percentages or proportions. Proportions can be expressed by using expressions such as "one in four" or "seven out of ten", or more accurately in the form of percentages (75%, 90%, etc.). Less precise expressions such as "the majority, a minority, a significant number, a large proportion, a small number, by far the largest proportion, etc." can also be used and are less formal than percentages and figures.

Generalisations can be made about the facts and figures contained in a report. First, state the facts and then make a generalisation e.g. 100% of pupils take English as an obligatory subject. This suggests/implies/indicates that with the right organisation of studies, contents and teaching methods… There can be used a reversed approach: you first make a generalisation and then state the facts e.g. With the right organisation of studies, contents and teaching methods… This is illustrated/demonstrated/indicated/shown by the fact that 100% of the pupils take English as an obligatory subject.

Like in other types of reports, events and conversations should be summarised using reported speech and more formal language. The report should include the writer's name, the recipient's name and the subject of the report. E.g.

To: Ms. Mary Rose

From: Sally Forgetmenot

Subject: Estimated impact of industries on the English language.