Ashanty Barrios 10/30/13 English 106 A.

Halliday Response to Ever Shifting Jargon and Academic Writing is Convoluted The two articles are similar in several ways but they are more different due to the fact that one of them is more formal than the other. The Ever Shifting Jargon article is more casually written, and the topic is also more informal. This article is mainly trying to show how certain words have been replaced and how certain vernacular is outdated. Many of the words we use now are due to the effort to be politically correct, non-sexist, and appropriate. For example, calling freshman first-year students(Olsen, 2012) removes the negative connotation that comes with the word freshman. Meanwhile in Kiddlers article about academic writing, his main focus was clarifying what scholarly writing mean. When his friend responded to what scholarly writing meant with Oh, you knowfootnotes and stuff (Kiddler, 1991) he shows annoyance and adds that he swore he would never use another footnote in writing again. Both these articles gave me some insight about why some type of jargon is preferred over others. I understand Olsens article and agree that some words should be used instead of others. It is more polite and respectful to use first year students rather than freshman and international students rather than foreign students. I also agree with Kiddlers article that the media should be regarded as an educational force. We actually learn a lot from the media and sometimes it can be just as scholarly as an article written by a professor or a journal written by a doctor.