The Language is a Living Organism (and Other Tricks Nature Plays)

I promised a friend I wouldn’t write anything nature-related this week, but…spring! You know, that time of year when you wear a T-shirt one day and three layers the next. Actually, that’s much of the year here in North Carolina. Don’t tell me you forgot about last fall when you packed away your shorts and flip flops only to find yourself—two weeks later—sweating into your pumpkin spice latte.

Last week did me in, meteorologically speaking, between Daylight Saving Time starting to schools being closed for possible tornados to tucking hand warmers into my pockets for a T-ball game. I’m ready for March to scoot out like a lamb.

Look out your window—even the plants are confused. Everything is blooming. We haven’t lived all four seasons in this house yet, so we were excited to see daffodils pop up last week, seemingly out of nowhere. Although I loved the view from my window, I felt the urge to knock on it and holler “no, don’t do that. It’s not safe for you yet!” They probably wouldn’t listen anyway. It’s hard to take advice, after all, when you’ve already done the thing the guidance is warning against.

We do like to give it, though, don’t we? Advice, that is.

Someone asked me last week what advice I’d give a junior technical writer. Although I’ve covered some of that in my writing here, the question threw me off for a moment. It may have been the “junior” part. Because if they’re the junior, what am I? Not at all junior.

What I blurted out, though, with all the confidence in the world was “read.” She looked a little confused, but I was happy to explain. Of course I encourage everyone to read in general. Reading helps us learn, escape, relax, and empathize—sometimes all at the same time. What I recommend for a tech writer, though, is to also read journals related to your industry, newspapers, and other works of nonfiction. Why? Because other than the benefit of remaining informed about the world around us (as far as current events and trends go), reading helps us understand the language. Did you know it evolves? If you need a refresher, take a look at this excerpt from The Canterbury Tales written around the late 14th century in—wait for it—English.

As the world changes, the vocabulary we need to explain it changes, so new words are added to the dictionary often. In 2021 Merriam-Webster added “makerspace,” “cancel culture,” and “second gentleman.” Sometimes we take an old word and use it differently or change the spelling. These days we especially excel at turning nouns into verbs: friend anyone lately? (This is called “verbing” and, yes, I looked it up.)  

But it’s not only our vocabulary that changes, how we string those words together does as well. Anyone out there still hit that space bar twice after a period? It feels good, doesn’t it? Did you know that it goes against most current rules of punctuation? Two spaces were necessary for readability back when we used typewriters or when text was typeset. Word processors take care of this spacing now, eliminating the need to manually add extra white space between sentences. Although I knew this rule was outdated, I was late to adopt it. Late = last year. (You learned to bake bread during the pandemic; I stopped typing two spaces after a period.)

A former professor used to bellow across the room “language is a living organism.” His point was that the language changes and that we should get used to it. He even went so far as to believe that’s what makes language beautiful.

I hated that. I’m (mostly) a rule follower. List the rules and regs, and I’ll work within them. Learning that today’s rules may be temporary made my heart sink. I clung to them like a life preserver and worried I’d never be able to keep up.

But I eventually realized that, armed with a good dictionary, a solid grammar and usage guide, and an active reading life, I could manage. As a technical writer, I don’t have to know it all. I only have be able to find answers to the things I don’t know—a challenge in itself.

What about you and your field of work? What specific advice would you give to someone just starting out? And have you packed away your jackets yet? Because you know this week's warm weather is just another dirty trick.