CVCC Linguistic Terrorism Thesis Statement and Outline 4.5 Writing Techniques thesis statement and outline Using the Rhetorical Methods in Academic Writi

CVCC Linguistic Terrorism Thesis Statement and Outline 4.5 Writing Techniques

thesis statement and outline

Using the Rhetorical Methods in Academic Writing in Back to the Lake (p. 20-26). Please review and have reference materials handy while completing this assignment.
To complete this assignment, you will identify a topic addressed in “Linguistic Terrorism,” establish your own position on the topic, state your position as a thesis statement, and create an outline.

Identify the theme or topic from the reading that most interests you.
Turn the topic into a question (i.e. How diverse is my neighborhood?)
Answer your question (this will result in a statement of your position on the topic)
Narrow the focus of your statement (this will result in a thesis statement)
Next, create a basic outline. Make sure you have three or four main points that support your thesis statement. Also, provide at least one quote or paraphrase from the reading selection from Back to the Lake to accompany each main point in your thesis (these text references may share or oppose your position). Finally, be sure to include some examples or observations from your own experience that support your main points.

Compose your intro paragraph and one supporting paragraph. It will be helpful to review the section in Back to the Lake on this part of the writing process on pages 56-61.

“Linguistic Terrorism”(Reference )_

Deslenguadas. Somos los del español deficiente. We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestizaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally, and linguistically somos huérfanos–we speak an orphan tongue.

Chicanas who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish. It is illegitimate, a bastard language. And because we internalize how our language has been used against us by the dominant culture, we use our language differences against each other.

Chicana feminists often skirt around each other with suspicion and hesitation. For the longest time I couldn’t figure it out. Then it dawned on me. To be close to another Chicana is like looking into the mirror. We are afraid of what we’ll see there. Pena. Shame. Low estimation of self. In childhood we are told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self. The attacks continue throughout our lives.

Chicanas feel uncomfortable talking in Spanish to Latinas, afraid of their censure. Their language was not outlawed in their countries. They had a whole lifetime of being immersed in their native tongue; generations, centuries in which Spanish was a first language, taught in school, heard on radio and TV, and read in the newspaper.

If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me. Often with mexicanas y latinas we’ll speak English as a neutral language. Even among Chicanas we tend to speak English at parties or conferences. Yet, at the same time, we’re afraid the other will think we are agringadas because we don’t speak Chicano Spanish. We oppress each other trying to out Chicano each other, vying to be the “real” Chicanas, to speak like Chicanos. There is no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience. A monolingual Chicana whose first language is English or Spanish is just as much a Chicana as one who speaks several varieties of Spanish. A Chicana from Michigan or Chicago or Detroit is just as much a Chicana as one from the Southwest. Chicano Spanish is as diverse linguistically as it is regionally.

By the end of this century, Spanish speakers will comprise the biggest minority group in the U.S., a country where students in high schools and colleges are encouraged to take French classes because French is considered more “cultured.” But for a language to remain alive it must be used. (1) By the end of this century English, and not Spanish, will be the mother tongue of most Chicanos and Latinos.

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So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity–I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex Mex, and all the other languages I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself. Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate.

I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice. Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue–my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.