David McCullough Urges BC Graduates To Speak Properly: Cut The "Like!"

NEWTON, Mass. — Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough has a suggestion for what young people can do for their country.

"Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation," McCullough implored Boston College's class of 2008 at commencement ceremonies Monday.

He said he's particularly troubled by the "relentless, wearisome use of words" such as like, awesome and actually.

"Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, 'Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country actually," he said.

Graduates apparently thought his speech was, like, awesome. They gave him a standing ovation.

Comments

[ellen63]

Indeed, and I'd add "oh-my-God" to the list. We also need a modulation of voice; no more "upspeak," that beathless, singsong voice to connote the "awesome." Patricia Burstein

[justfine]

Actually upspeak denotes questioning as the speaker, usually female (no, this is not a sexist statement, but a fact) is unfortunately insecure in her answer to a question. Hence, she says, when asked "how are you?" "I'm fine?"

I hear it constantly from Ivy grads who have said such things to me when asked where they attended college as, "Yale? In New Haven?" Considering that I live 20 minutes from Yale it is all the more exasperating.

I long to strangle each and every one of them.

[Tariqahmed]

I now admire Mr. McCullough even more for his respect for English literature.
Our youngs plus grown ups often heard saying"say ou what' you know what" this is an evidence of decline in literacy.
Correct English must be norm in the USA.

[GeeBee]

Who is Norm?

[swift goat pet for truth]

Norm?
All languages evolve constantly. There is no norm.

[ptillen]

Saying that English is made lively and rich by constantly evolving, taking in words from other languages, expressions from changing technologies, etc, is true.
Saying that its evolution is the same as its being made trivial and juvenile by declining literacy, willful ignorance, and incorrect usage and grammar is not at all true or desirable.

[BadCompany]

Do we need good sentence structure?

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

Here Here. Three cheers for David McCullough!!!!!!!!!

Then there's my all-time favorite: supposubly. There is no B in supposedly.

[PennLawyer]

Your heart is in the right place, but you need to brush up on homonyms: words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Re: your "Here. Here." read on:
Hear hear is an expression that originated as hear ye, or hear him, usually repeated. This imperative was used to call attention to a speaker's words, and naturally developed the sense of a broad expression of favour. This is how it is still used today, although one can always vary one's tone to express different sentiments; the Oxford English Dictionary noted around the turn of the century that the phrase is now the regular form of cheering in the House of Commons, and expresses, according to intonation, admiration, acquiescence, indignation, derision, etc. It is often incorrectly spelled "here here".
As a parliamentary cheer, hear him, hear him! is first recorded in the late 17th century and continued into the 19th; the reduction to hear! or hear, hear! occurred by the late 18th century. However, the use of the verb hear as an imperative meaning listen! is older: a notable example is the parliamentary-sounding Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear (2 Samuel 20, verse 16) in the King James Bible, first published in 1611.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

I stand corrected. Thank you.

[suntzu]

As long as we're on the use of English, the saying is "Hear, hear" not "Here, here."

[justfine]

Hear. Hear!

Apparently you also need to Read. Read!

[RTIII]

I'm tired of those who "confuse" then and than.