Date:    Wed, 25 Mar 1998 21:01:21 -0600
<br>From:    Dennis Baron  debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UIUC.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: Banning words in class
<br>
<br>Sorry but I haven't been following this discussion, which I find now to be
<br>very interesting (was on spring break and just deleted all my email).  Not
<br>only do I not ban words in class, I encourage students to use words that
<br>others have banned (including ain't, other forms of to be [what would
<br>Hamlet have done without to be or not to be, that the question]; can for
<br>may, like for as, that for which. I end sentences with prepositions; and I
<br>curse wildly (I love the lesson on taboo, though I warn students that it is
<br>for mature audiences and note that I am cursing as part of a scientific
<br>study of language--as Clarence Darrow is supposed to have said, at least in
<br>Inherit the Wind, I don't curse just for the hell of it. And double
<br>negatives, hey I just love double negatives! Exclamation points, smiley
<br>faces.  Sure there's lots about language I don't like.  Like share for
<br>tell. But ban it? Hell, I hate that one so much I use it all the time.  A
<br>foolish consistency is the hobgoblin, if you ask me. Nay, I would ban
<br>banning, were I of a mind to ban.
<br>
<br>Dennis
<br>
<br>
<br>Dennis Baron, Acting Head               debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu
<br>Department of English           phone: 217-333-2390
<br>University of Illinois          fax: 217-333-4321
<br>608 South Wright Street
<br>Urbana, Illinois 61801   http://www.english.uiuc.edu/baron
<br>