Learn to recognize gibberish (unintelligible or nonsensical speech or writing) so you won’t fall into the habit of imitating it. Here are two examples from Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers, by Rita Kramer.
Examples of gibberish
Peabody College: A supervisor of student teachers says, “The issue in like teacher education today is that the real world is fragmented but we have a skill-based curriculum. That imposes constraints on your chances for eliciting creativity.” (Page 65)
Michigan State University: The head of the Department of Teacher Education says the aim of the department’s curriculum is “to foster personal and social responsibility, to learn to work with others in egalitarian ways, respecting diversity and integrating everyone for the future of our country.” (Page 75)
Translation
On this blog, I usually translate examples of unclear writing and speaking into plain English, even if the process requires me to do some educated guesswork. But I can’t even guess what these people are trying to say.
The Takeaway: Don’t imitate speech or writing just because the speaker or writer has an advanced academic degree. Many people with advanced academic degrees speak and write gibberish all day long.
See disclaimer.
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