Blog Post 4 - Vitor M.

            In Richard’s text, he is explaining how people have gone to let words have one meaning in texts. Why is it that a certain word can be used for a meaning, but is not allowed to be used for another? It seems as if people have given words these concrete meanings that cannot be twisted or reused in different ways.

            This topic strongly relates to me because I cross this issue many times while writing my papers. I hate the fact that I have to remove (or add) certain words into my vocabulary because others don’t accept them. Teachers nowadays have a strong policy for what words have certain meanings and that’s not fair.

            Richards specifically said that certain context around words have been able to give these words the meanings that they possess. If we switch the context around a word to something else, can we give these words different meanings? I don’t agree with him 100% on everything he claims, but I do think that writing has a very concrete format to it that should be able to change.

            I can see this concept applying to many writers, including myself, because not everyone has a wide variety of vocabulary words to choose from. I know that if I could successfully give a certain word another meaning, I would most definitely do it.

            When writing an essay, if should be up to the author to portray his text how he wants to. If he would like to give a word an opposite meaning, then so be it.