When people learn to write by speaking onto the page without worrying about

correctness it helps them do what they so often postpone or even dread.

Start off writing projects.

Few people can learn to write really well

unless they write a great deal and with some pleasure.

And few can manage that unless they feel

writing to be as comfortable as an old shoe something they can slip into naturally

and without pinching.

The traditional method of starting off with proper language

may have worked for some, but it's impeded many others,

making them feel writing as an alien, uncomfortable, or even impossible enterprise.

So says Dr. Peter Elbow, my guru, from his most recent book called vernacular eloquence.

Which is a great name for a book.

Isn't it?

Cracking up when he told me that earlier.

Dr. Elbow is currently exploring the relationship between speech and writing.

He and I had a short email dialogue not too long ago when I discovered this book and I let him know that Brave Writer has carried

on in the tradition of marrying speech to writing to create robust, flexible, enthusiastic writers, kids equally prepared for the tasks of the

digital age, but also for college.

So it's with that in mind that I thought Noah we could talk today about the multitude of

Englishs that each of us know, speak, and eventually right.

The ones that we all have to shift between when doing things such as writing a college

...