Friday, September 3, 2010
Week 2 - Post 2: Vague Sentences
Yesterday a friend and I were discussing our class schedules for this semester. Seeing as how we are both nursing majors, it was not uncommon to see so many science classes on our agendas. As we were talking, she pointed to her chemistry book and said, “This class is hard.” Her statement was so general that I had to have her elaborate to understand her feelings on the matter. Such a statement would be considered vague because its specific meaning could not be pinpointed. Her idea would have been far easier to comprehend if she had mentioned what specifically made the class challenging. A vague sentence is a statement thats meaning is so broad or undefined that an individual cannot target its specific meaning. White sentences such as these make for bad arguments, and even the occasional poor conversation, they are extremely common in everyday dialogue. Despite my efforts to avoid using vague sentences, I find that they still slip into my daily conversations.
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I agree about finding vague sentences slipping into my everyday vocabulary. I think its really common with people we know, because we expect them to understand us and know what we're talking about when we refer to things vaguely. I think you used a good example too, because a lot of the advice I was given about classes I've chosen or thought about choosing were vague like "that teacher is really mean," or "I liked that class because it was really fun."
ReplyDeleteAs a Chemistry major, I would have to agree with the sentence about chemistry being hard, but there are several reasons why a chemistry class would be difficult. If your friend had expounded on her claim with reasons such as, “the chemical reactions are difficult to understand” or “we cover two to three chapters a week”, then it would have made more sense. Omission of the reason or explanation is exactly why the sentence is vague. Vague sentences like this always make me want to ask the person who said the sentence, “why?” On another note, I also agree with what you said about vague sentences being in daily conversation. I find myself saying, “this sandwich tastes good” or “class was boring” without giving any explanation as to why something is “good” or “boring”.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about having vague sentences in daily conversations.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I come home and state, "I'm tired." I assume everyone knows just how tired I am. I am not specific about having walked all over the hospital in my eight-hour shift. If we had to be specific or use definitions in all our conversations we would never stop talking.
I am a registered nurse and when I was taking my prerequisites in nursing, I was told that certain classes were "hard." They didn't specify what made them difficult. The classes included microbiology, statistics, etc. I found that once I took the courses, they were not to bad. Everyone has a different learning curve and study habits.