Vernacular/Standard English Analysis

The Assignment
English has many dialects. One of these dialects is Standard English. This is the academic, rigid, formal writing we ask you to do in the classroom. We don’t normally talk this way to our friends and family, but we do use this kind of English when we write letters for work or essays in school. Another dialect in English is the vernacular we use every day. For you this could be internet slang, AAVE, or maybe even Cockney Rhyming Slang; there are countless varieties. All of these less formal, or vernacular forms of English, are appropriate in different situations.
In paper two you will do some writing in Standard English and some writing in a Vernacular English of your choosing. Each of these pieces of writing will be between one and two pages. They will each be a form of correspondence. It is up to you what you write about, but in each piece you must address your audience, share some information, and ask them for assistance in some way. These will be the first two parts of the essay.
The third and final part of this essay will be an analysis, where you will explain to me the benefits and the drawbacks of the dialects of English you have used in parts one and two. After you’ve written and edited the first two parts, look them over, thinking about our discussion of language. Ask yourself the following questions. How do these dialects differ? How are they similar? How did each dialect help me in communicating and/or requesting help? How did each dialect hurt me as I communicated? Finally, come to some conclusions about the merit of both dialects. Is one dialect more valuable than the other? Better? Worse? More useful?

How To Blow My Mind
If you want to blow my mind for this paper, go beyond just writing a couple letters and then writing an analysis where you re-hash what you wrote about. Instead, take time to craft each of your first two parts. Do your best to flesh out and reap all of the possible benefits from Standard English and Vernacular English in those letters. Highlight what they can do for a writer when they are at their best. Then in your analysis show me that you understand the similarities and differences of these dialects, and show me that you understand the merits of both of them.  Why do we keep a Standard English that has so many rules and shove it down students throats in school? Why do we create vernaculars that intentionally differ from that Standard English. In other words, take it seriously and get creative!