By Gabriella D.
If written works in official style is hard
to understand, plain style works are hard to find. Within this world full of
official style, there aren’t many scholarly articles works in plain prose that
are published and include a full text. More specifically, a university search
database definitely makes my search more difficult. However, after reading this
specific piece, I automatically knew that it was written in plain style based
on general reading ease. The piece is called “Meaningful Collaborations: An
Introduction to Music of Jamaica” by Karen Howard. In contrast to other
articles, I was able to easily read the article and stay engaged without the
niche language, repetition, or other high style techniques. At first glance,
the sentence structure consistently followed the plain style format of the kicker
followed then by the kicked. Not only linguistically but also visually, I was
able to identify plain style because of the visual aids accompanying the text. The
piece surrounds a 5th grade teacher and his students. They invite
Dr. David Aarons, an ethnomusicologist, to their fifth-grade class to teach
about the professional’s wide variety of traditional and contemporary music
experiences from Jamaica. The article follows the author’s experience teaching
their fifth-grade class parts of the Jamaican music culture by an
ethnomusicologist while also understanding the sociocultural socio-history
behind Jamaican lyrics. While we learn the different parts of Jamaican musical
culture, we analyze the type of prose used throughout the piece and its
strategies, and why they are used. Then, we will consider the plain style prose
within the context it is written. I argue that the context of which the piece
is written makes a great impact on which stylistic prose is used. In this case,
the author’s teaching background may have carried over into the language of the
piece and affected the author’s choice of prose – plain style.
First, the
stylistic strategies which are used throughout the piece prove that this piece
is written mostly in plain-style which is also language teachers of lower-grade
levels often use for easier understanding. For example, a plain-style strategy
we see throughout the entirety of the article is conduplicato – the repetition
of a keyword from a preceding clause or sentence at or near the beginning of
the next. An article about music, understandably, variations of the word “song”
is repeated about 14 times throughout the piece. Another strategy used is
metabasis – stating what has been said and/or what will follow. Here, we can
see that the author, rather smoothly, creates a transition by applying context to
what they discussed which was analyzing Jamaican song lyrics, “An understanding
of the song’s deeper cultural meaning behind the seemingly silly lyrics,
however, secured its place in my curriculum” (56). We can see the author
utilizes metabasis in hopes of concluding by tying the significance of this
specific Jamaican musical piece to the context of their musical class.
However, we move on to the strategies that
seemed to only magnify the cons of plain-style prose. For example, plain style
may be easier to read but they may also oversimplify its content. For example, the
author mentions a musical technique while analyzing the lyrics of a Jamaican
song, “The call and response song can be placed into a key that works for the
instruments that you choose” (56). According to ISKME.org, call and
response is a technique where “one
musician offers a phrase and a second player answers with a direct commentary
or response to the offered phrase. The musicians build on each other’s offering
and work together to move the song along and create a sound that’s inventive
and collective”. However, this is a musical technique that is not explained
further within the article. Although it can be self-explanatory, as the main
topic being about music and Jamaican music analysis, there should be more
explanation on this term and its nuances. Another example where the ethics of
plain style are questioned is within a conversation between the teacher and
their students on the introduction of Jamaican culture,
“They smoke a
lot.” I realize that he means marijuana, and I am unsure how to respond. I
decide to be frank and say that I do not know if that is true, but that it does
seem to be a reputation associated with the country. I raise my finger in the
air and say, “That might be . . . a stereotype!” We review the definition for
stereotype. Clare reminds us is facing the wrong way,” It’s when we judge
something without knowing things for sure.” I add, “Right—that we make an
assumption without questioning why we think that, or where we heard it.” (54)
They are right to correct their students
for stereotyping what they think they know of the country, but there is more to
understand about this stereotype. It well and done that they now understand the
definition of a stereotype, but more is to say about how to recognize other
stereotypes in play, avoid them, and stop this stereotype threat. However,
there is also not much to say as I doubt that sociological concepts of
stereotypes are a part of the curriculum just yet.
In conclusion, the
plain style has its pros and cons. It makes pieces more readable and
accessible, however, it also has ethical implications like oversimplifying. This
could be detrimental especially for the intended audience that comes with the
more accessible plain style. However, the author’s stylistic choice of using
plain-style prose may be due to the context surrounding this work. It is not
written to a 5th grade audience because of some moments of musical
analysis. At the same time, this is not intended for musical theory experts as
most of its sentences are simple and concise without much further explanation
or analysis. The author is a teacher not only reflecting on their experience of
teaching music culture to their fifth graders and analyzing Jamaican music, but
they also aim to teach other educators how to go about music education. We can
see this when they include dialogue of the students which makes for reference
for other educators. Therefore, the intended audience are for teachers alike
searching for ways to teach complex concepts to young children. In this case,
plain-style prose is appropriate which its pros overpower its cons.
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