Aaron Hernandez
ENGL 110C
IMRAD Paper: Taboo Words
02/21/2021
How Just a Simple Words Can Affects You
Introduction 1.0
Throughout history, people have been treated differently based on skin color, sex, and religion. But people forget that years ago the founding fathers started on the belief that “all men are created equal” as written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration Of Independence (Witte, 2020). Since then people have interpreted “equal” as meaning individual equality instead of the equality of the people. This has created a taboo of the word equal because some believe that equal means treated the same while others believe that equal means treated alike as Nate Oman wrote in his paper “Why Equality is a Feeling”(Oman,2014). Society views the word equality as love and caring for one another. (Sadeghi,2020) Taboo words come to be taboo due to society finding certain words offensive or inappropriate to use at certain times or places. Taboo words can affect people in different ways so it’s best to stay well educated on their meaning and their emotional affect. Therefore it’s critical to investigate words like equal not only to see their emotional response but also to see when they are appropriate to use.
Thesis 1.1
This research will examine the feelings of college students towards the word “Equal” when talking about society.
Literacy Review 2.0
It’s important to know that words have a gigantic effect on the body’s emotional response as written in the article “ The Scary Power of Negative Words.” An article written by Lindsey Horton called “The Neuroscience Behind Our Words” states that “the use of negative words can lead to high levels of stress and anxiety” (Horton,2019). This is why we need to know how and when it’s appropriate to use a word. There are certain situations where a word would not be appropriate like if you were at church it would be highly inappropriate to cuss. However, if you at a bar watching a game it would be common to hear someone cuss. In an article written by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Waldman called “Why This Word Is So Dangerous to Say or Hear” they state that a word as simple as “no” can affect not only the person who said it but also those who hear it. (Newberg,2012) It amazing to see that not only the words you say can affect you but also the words you hear in your everyday life can affect your mood and behavoir. This set a foundation for why studying words such as “equal” is so important because it can truly affect your life and well-being.
3.0 Methods
3.1 Description of Research tools
The research tool used was a brief interview conducted in person. Participants were asked, “How does the word equality make you feel or react?”. Participants were then asked why they felt that certain way.
3.2 Description of Participants
4 volunteers were asked to answer the question. These volunteers were selected based on their different races, student classification, and ages.
Participant | Age | Student Classification | Race |
1 | 19 | Sophmore | Asian |
2 | 20 | Junior | African American |
3 | 18 | Freshmen | White |
4 | 23 | Senior | Hispanic |
3.3 Description of Data Collected
The research was collected in an in-person interview on February 15, 2021. The volunteers were asked, “How does the word equality make you feel or react?” Then the volunteers were asked why they gave the answer they gave. The interviewer wrote down their responses in a notebook and then proceeded to transfer and organized the information into a google doc.
4.0 Results
The results were interesting participants 2 and 3 were excited and happy because they believed that equality is a positive and motivating word. They felt that in a social context that they were fighting every day to show their worth and take opportunities. They elaborated by saying that sometimes they feel as if they are handicap or overlooked in life. While participant 3 felt neutral about the word and didn’t have any feeling towards the word itself. Participant 1 felt negatively towards the word because they believed that the world has yet to show true equality. They elaborated by says that equal doesn’t mean equal and that they didn’t believe that everyone should share everything. But instead, they wanted everyone to have the same chance at everything and whether they decide to take that opportunity was on the person themselves.
5.0 Discovery
It was interesting seeing how different races had different reactions to the question. While the Hispanic, African American, and Asian volunteers all responded with having certain opinions about the word and felt as if the word was something they had to achieve. Whilst the white volunteer had a quick and simple response to the word. That came as a surprise because after the first two volunteers I thought that the third would have had more to say but instead, it was a quick interview. While doing the research it was difficult trying to find articles that had to deal with emotional responses. It was interesting how a lot of articles are written of straight facts and involve little to no emotion. If I were to do this research again I would have picked a more vast group of volunteers. Not only would I have picked different races and ages I would have also picked adults to be included in this research. I also would have made a questionnaire instead of an interview because it would have been easier to organize the information. When comparing my research to other studies the results came back very similar. This research was important because the way people feel about certain words matter as you can see from the body’s emotional responses. People should choose their vocabulary carefully because you never know who could be listening.
Citation 6.0
- Horton, Lindsey. “The Neuroscience Behind Our Words.” BRM Institute, 6 Aug. 2019, brm.institute/neuroscience-behind-words/.
- (When Thomas Jefferson Penned “All Men Are Created Equal,” He Did Not Mean Individual Equality, Says Stanford Scholar, 2020)
- Newberg, Andrew. “Why This Word Is So Dangerous to Say or Hear.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 1 Aug. 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/words-can-change-your-brain/201208/why-word-is-so-dangerous-say-or-hear.
- Sadeghi, —Habib. “Power Of Words – How Words Affect Our Lives & Behavior.” Goop, 29 July 2020, goop.com/wellness/mindfulness/the-scary-power-of-negative-words/.
7.0 Reflection
I think that my conclusion was the best part of this paper. Throughout this paper, I had trouble not repeating the same word. I also had trouble at the beginning trying to start my paper. I could have spent more time researching and I also could have spent more time writing each part. Honestly, on this paper, I didn’t completely grasp the idea of the paper itself. This lead to me having a hard time writing the introduction and the conclusion. For my next paper, I would like to take advantage of the zoom meeting to ask questions and completely understand the paper.
Aaron Hernandez
ENGL 110C
IMRAD Paper: Taboo Words
02/21/2021
How Just a Simple Words Can Affects You
Introduction 1.0
Throughout history, people have been treated differently based on skin color, sex, and religion. But people forget that years ago the founding fathers started on the belief that “all men are created equal” as written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration Of Independence (Witte, 2020). Since then people have interpreted “equal” as meaning individual equality instead of the equality of the people. This has created a taboo of the word equal because some believe that equal means treated the same while others believe that equal means treated alike as Nate Oman wrote in his paper “Why Equality is a Feeling”(Oman,2014). Society views the word equality as love and caring for one another. (Sadeghi,2020) Taboo words come to be taboo due to society finding certain words offensive or inappropriate to use at certain times or places. Taboo words can affect people in different ways so it’s best to stay well educated on their meaning and their emotional affect. Therefore it’s critical to investigate words like equal not only to see their emotional response but also to see when they are appropriate to use.
Thesis 1.1
This research will examine the feelings of college students towards the word “Equal” when talking about society.
Literacy Review 2.0
It’s important to know that words have a gigantic effect on the body’s emotional response as written in the article “ The Scary Power of Negative Words.” An article written by Lindsey Horton called “The Neuroscience Behind Our Words” states that “the use of negative words can lead to high levels of stress and anxiety” (Horton,2019). This is why we need to know how and when it’s appropriate to use a word. There are certain situations where a word would not be appropriate like if you were at church it would be highly inappropriate to cuss. However, if you at a bar watching a game it would be common to hear someone cuss. In an article written by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Waldman called “Why This Word Is So Dangerous to Say or Hear” they state that a word as simple as “no” can affect not only the person who said it but also those who hear it. (Newberg,2012) It amazing to see that not only the words you say can affect you but also the words you hear in your everyday life can affect your mood and behavoir. This set a foundation for why studying words such as “equal” is so important because it can truly affect your life and well-being.
3.0 Methods
3.1 Description of Research tools
The research tool used was a brief interview conducted in person. Participants were asked, “How does the word equality make you feel or react?”. Participants were then asked why they felt that certain way.
3.2 Description of Participants
4 volunteers were asked to answer the question. These volunteers were selected based on their different races, student classification, and ages.
Participant | Age | Student Classification | Race |
1 | 19 | Sophmore | Asian |
2 | 20 | Junior | African American |
3 | 18 | Freshmen | White |
4 | 23 | Senior | Hispanic |
3.3 Description of Data Collected
The research was collected in an in-person interview on February 15, 2021. The volunteers were asked, “How does the word equality make you feel or react?” Then the volunteers were asked why they gave the answer they gave. The interviewer wrote down their responses in a notebook and then proceeded to transfer and organized the information into a google doc.
4.0 Results
The results were interesting participants 2 and 3 were excited and happy because they believed that equality is a positive and motivating word. They felt that in a social context that they were fighting every day to show their worth and take opportunities. They elaborated by saying that sometimes they feel as if they are handicap or overlooked in life. While participant 3 felt neutral about the word and didn’t have any feeling towards the word itself. Participant 1 felt negatively towards the word because they believed that the world has yet to show true equality. They elaborated by says that equal doesn’t mean equal and that they didn’t believe that everyone should share everything. But instead, they wanted everyone to have the same chance at everything and whether they decide to take that opportunity was on the person themselves.
5.0 Discovery
It was interesting seeing how different races had different reactions to the question. While the Hispanic, African American, and Asian volunteers all responded with having certain opinions about the word and felt as if the word was something they had to achieve. Whilst the white volunteer had a quick and simple response to the word. That came as a surprise because after the first two volunteers I thought that the third would have had more to say but instead, it was a quick interview. While doing the research it was difficult trying to find articles that had to deal with emotional responses. It was interesting how a lot of articles are written of straight facts and involve little to no emotion. If I were to do this research again I would have picked a more vast group of volunteers. Not only would I have picked different races and ages I would have also picked adults to be included in this research. I also would have made a questionnaire instead of an interview because it would have been easier to organize the information. When comparing my research to other studies the results came back very similar. This research was important because the way people feel about certain words matter as you can see from the body’s emotional responses. People should choose their vocabulary carefully because you never know who could be listening.
Citation 6.0
- Horton, Lindsey. “The Neuroscience Behind Our Words.” BRM Institute, 6 Aug. 2019, brm.institute/neuroscience-behind-words/.
- (When Thomas Jefferson Penned “All Men Are Created Equal,” He Did Not Mean Individual Equality, Says Stanford Scholar, 2020)
- Newberg, Andrew. “Why This Word Is So Dangerous to Say or Hear.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 1 Aug. 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/words-can-change-your-brain/201208/why-word-is-so-dangerous-say-or-hear.
- Sadeghi, —Habib. “Power Of Words – How Words Affect Our Lives & Behavior.” Goop, 29 July 2020, goop.com/wellness/mindfulness/the-scary-power-of-negative-words/.
7.0 Reflection
I think that my conclusion was the best part of this paper. Throughout this paper, I had trouble not repeating the same word. I also had trouble at the beginning trying to start my paper. I could have spent more time researching and I also could have spent more time writing each part. Honestly, on this paper, I didn’t completely grasp the idea of the paper itself. This lead to me having a hard time writing the introduction and the conclusion. For my next paper, I would like to take advantage of the zoom meeting to ask questions and completely understand the paper.