I read the article on “swearing” from Mignon Fogarty’s ‘Grammar Girl’s website’. It was a collection of taboos on swearing and I found a lot of interesting information.
Something that I learned was that a U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the longstanding FCC ban on vulgar language on radio and network television. I had no idea that this ban had been repealed and in effect swearing has been in the news a lot lately.
One example of swearing in the news would be of Mel Gibson’s outburst on national television about Jews and African Americans. Without thinking, he single handedly butchered his career by simply jawing off using inappropriate and offensive language, or swearing.
I also learned that swear words are processed in the brain’s limbic system, the area responsible for emotions. The article stated that somebody can actually be affected by the use of swear words. “Experiments have shown that hearing or reading dirty words affects people emotionally, as indicated by an increase in their Galvanic skin response.”I did not know that swear words had such a strong affect on people, especially a physical affect. I wonder which words have a stronger influence on people and what kind of emotional response it triggers in the body.
The article also talks about the usage of swear words in writing. Typically, you should not include swearing in your writing, however there are exceptions. If you are writing a fictional piece, and the swearing is applied to a character that is supposed to be foul mouthed or misbehaved, then it is deemed appropriate. Swearing is not recommended in personal blogging or anything that will be used for school or work. As we all know, swearing is bad and it is looked down upon, so why would you want to make yourself look bad.
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