should I write my essay in an English-based creole?

College Essays
1

<p>It resembles English, and in fact descended from it, but brings in vocabulary, grammars and phonologies of other languages. The creole epitomises me, with various cultures and languages integrated into one language, not quite a salad bowl, not quite a melting pot, and certainly not the plural monoculturalism that gets passed for multiculturalism. </p>

<p>I became interested in linguistics partially because as I rediscovered my dialect, I had to use arguments from linguistics to defend it against people who would assert it “broken,” and I think it would be insufficient to properly explain its significance with just dialogue. </p>

<p>It wouldn’t be quite standard English, but I would leave lots of contextual clues, or would AdComs not like having to read such a thing?</p>

2

<p>I wouldn’t…maybe a small part, but not the whole thing</p>

3

<p>Hell no. No one speaks creole.</p>

4

<p>Not that creole – a creole that resembles English.</p>

<p>If it’s creative enough, can it work? I plan to discuss its issues – stigma, sociolinguistics, how it evolved, its tonal system, its modal particles, etc. – in my essay, and put diacritics to mark the tone. </p>

<p>I say this because I think it will be much better to show the language rather than to tell …</p>

5

<p>Are you Jamaican?</p>

6

<p>Why don’t you give us a sample sentence? Creole can mean a lot of things.</p>

7

<p>^Yes, that’s a good idea. Just give an example. I think this sounds like a great idea. Very creative.</p>

8

<p>would be interesting. send it to us to have a look!</p>

9

<p>Give us an example.</p>

10

<p>Why not follow your heart and do the entire essay in Creole and present a simultaneous translation, i.e. the same essay written in Standard English. Voila! The best of both worlds: show your mastery of both patois, your willingness to stake out creative academic territory and conform to more conventional academic demands.</p>

11

<p>Will it give the adcom a headache to read it? Show us an excerpt!</p>