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Some Plain Facts About Americans And Their Language

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Some Plain Facts About Americans And Their Language
“Some Plain Facts about Americans and Their Language” by Dennis Preston Critical Analysis

The following essay being summarized and analyzed “Some Plain Fact about Americans and Their Language” by Dennis Preston was originally published in the Winter 2000 issue of the journal American Speech. During the time of this article being published, Preston was a professor at Michigan State University. This essay is a research piece on Americans from different regions of the United States and their opinion on other dialects correctness and pleasantness. To support the research, Preston uses multiple examples of quantitative data. I will examine the main theme portrayed by the author, the organization, connections between ideas, and transitions within the text as well as the style, voice, and audience of this essay.

The essay begins as Preston states that some dialects of the same language are not as correct or pleasant as others. Next, Preston would state that no matter the demographic, most people in the United States are attached to the thought of dialect correctness. To follow the opening, Preston would then state two …show more content…
According to Preston’s summary, respondents from all over the United States agree that some regions speak better English than others and that the south and New York City are at the bottom of the pile (100). By reading the maps and legends of the Michiganders, it is easy to tell that they believed that they were in other words, normal and that other regions had dialects. To also support this theme, Preston uses the Auburn University survey (99) that showed that the south indeed had a pleasant dialect and that the further north map went, the more incorrect or unpleasant the dialect was. However, the author did not let New York have a share in the survey even though they were a main point of interest in both surveys
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