How Words Affected My Life

What are words? A simple question such as this would in theory demand only a simple answer. Words, however, take such an abundance of forms that creating a truly inclusive definition for the notion of “words” is daunting. In its physical manifestation, a word is little more than air passing over taut tendons, forming sounds which are accented by flicks of the tongue against the teeth and roof of the mouth. These sounds are arranged in patterns that come to be recognized and accepted as words. But are these sounds all that words represent?—certainly not. Words command power. Although the defiant playground motto states that “sticks and stones may break bones, but words can never hurt,”

Words have the power to motivate no matter their size, for instance, the sermon the minister preaches motivates the ones who initially want to hear. Angelou claims, “Even the minister preached on graduation the Sunday before. His subject was, ‘Let your light so shine that men will see your good works and praise your father’”. Although, the reader does not hear the sermon, the title, “Let your light so shine that men will see your good works and praise your father”, allows the reader to visualize and even take the words to heart. As mentioned previously, that words motivate, they also demotivate, aditionally, “The man's dead words fell like bricks around the auditorium and too many settled in my belly. Constrained by hard learned manners I couldn’t look behind me, but to my left and right the proud graduating class of 1940 had dropped their heads”. The words dead, bricks, settled, belly constrained, behind, and dropped, although not necessarily horrible words alone, but in the right context they will leave a grown man in his own desolation. With the right words, civilization will thrive or plummet to the depths of the

Words are all around us. Words define the way we describe the way we articulate, one such example being this very paper, the way we interact with others, and most importantly, the way we feel or think. Adjectives: the words that give our world emotional meaning beyond the literal definition; that is connotation. Connotation is most evident in words to which we associate our most extreme emotions. Whether it is witnessing the greatest of fireworks, an elaborate collection of lights and sounds, or seeing truckfuls of babies being dumped into a blistering hot fire, the word we would use to describe these two events, fire, will forever be emotionally seen differently by whomever witnesses it. A word can develop in meaning, once meaning one thing to then mean something completely different. In fact, In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, Elie’s definition of the word ‘fire’ changes from that of a danger to one’s self to that of destruction and revenge.

The power of words can be the difference of a happy ending to the start of a War.

It’s happened to us all, we have said something that didn’t come out right. When, this happens the words that spill out do not represent your message. Instead the person or people the words are directed to may be offended or worse. This is an example where I was placed in this exact position.

Have you ever felt incompetent because you wrote a horrible essay, or have you ever saved a whole essay for the night before? Have you ever wanted to die because you are writing the absolute most boring topic ever? If yes was the answer to any of those questions, I suggest taking Writing in the Liberal Arts with Professor Hilsher at Houghton College. It benefited me greatly. Before I took this class, I did not care if my essays were mediocre or boring. I just wanted to hand them in. Writing 101 has changed my perspective on writing. I learned many specific things that cleared my writing up, writing a rough draft first is important, and finding ways to incorporate passions into all pieces makes a difference.

Words matter. They have the power to hurt or heal. The words we choose have consequences. They reveal our prejudices and our character. They are a product of our culture and our cultures prejudices.

In my childhood I was not taught the fundamentals of proper writing. Nor was it influenced in my household to dedicate time for writing. My father owned his own business, therefore, I always saw him writing inventory and receipts. As for my mother, I can recall her writing down messages from phone calls. At school I found little to no growth in my writing. When I did face a task that required legible writing I would seek help from my friend Sandra. This class is by far the first English course I have taken were I could truly say lectures are broken down enough for me to develop satisfactory growth. I am still a developing writer, but I have made a lot of progress because of influences of my own desire to learn, Professor Anna C. Morrison, and

Many people say that expressing themselves with bad words makes them feel better, but then again it could be true however does it make it right? How many of you have walked beside a family and you hear the children talking to their parents in such a disrespectful matter as if they weren’t the authority figure as if respect never existed. Possibly the parents might find it okay for their children to speak to them in such way but in other people’s eyes it’s not. Nowadays not only do children but adults find it okay for them to speak in a unpleasant matter.

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force, but through persistence”. One's words are a lot like water, they may hurt just a little bit but over time it wears out an individual. Even if they aren't even noticing it. It stays in the back of their head. Slowly eroding and demolishing one's self esteem.

Have you ever asked yourself why we have not always believed words? Words are over used and can understand them in many different ways. A person can say something, mean it one way, but the person who heard it understands it in a different way. We can change words as quickly as the thought. Actions are harder to have multiple meanings. Basically the phrase “Actions speak louder than words” means, what you do is more important than what you say. From experience, this statement is true.

Some people question whether acctions are more damaging than words. Actions may kill people. Words may drive people to kill them selfs. It all depends on the people minds and thoughts. If a mentale unstable person was bullied she/he might take suicide into consideration that’s how words affect people. Actions may take people to unspeakable actions like colmbine’s school shooting.

All to often we say things without thinking or at times we say things we really don't mean. WORDS are such an important and relevant part of our lives, still we often take them for granted and aren't as careful with them as we should be!

It's true that words we choose have the capacity to hurt, to kill, to threaten and produce fear. You may not realise how strong of an

Mostly, words represents simple language communication and stand for a carrier of people’s emotion. For example, I felt very upset and frustrated when I got a few deny letters from some universities I applied in the last year of my high school. During that time, every single word from these letters turned to be sharp and dreadful. However, when I have a chat with my old friends, I usually enjoy every moment of texting and also enjoy every word I type during those chats. In general, whether I like or dislike some certain words, it is not only depends on words itself, but also depends on the words-using in its different situations.