Resisting the Notion of "Proper Literacy" as the Standard for Speaking Well

Abstract

It has become increasingly clear that we as communication center professionals must confront the deeply rooted linguistic assumptions and traditions that underlie notions of speaking well. In this essay, we argue that one place to start is to look closely how and why conceptions of speaking well have come to rest on an unquestioned ideal of what has been termed "proper literacy." We analyze an array of speaking center tip sheets, videos, and web pages and discuss the ways in which the standard of proper literacy functions to shackle the performative potential of our rhetorical spaces, narrowing or even erasing the multitude of possibilities for producing and performing effective oral messages and unintentionally reinforcing aspects of white privilege and exclusion in the academy. We offer the possibility of a return to the rhetorical tradition of techne as one approach to begin to resist the confines and dangers of written “propriety” in our spoken discourse.