Grammar for Being Modest (Week 11)

"To be or not to be, that is the question" (Shakespeare 1).  William Shakespeare's famous line has continued to influence speakers' or writers' decisions to make certain claims. Weinstein and Finn expressed that "teachers" (121) contribute to "the confusing use of 'I'" (121). Weinstein and Finn stated that the use of "I" is "far too often forbidden" (121) in classes. Wienstein's and Finn's claim on the use of "I" are realistic in many ways. For example, I had to be careful and considerate in the use of "I" when I was in a meeting. If I used "I" to express something, I might omitted the contributions of others even though "other" people might not contribute to the group work. However, it was "me" that did the most, if not, all of the work. To appease the others, I ended up using "we" and "ours" to make false claims about what did not happen. In addition, the confusing use of "I" can "get us carried away with ourselves at times" (Weinstein and Finn 126).  I recalled many occasions when I had to be careful with the use of "I." If I used "I" too many times, I would focus strictly on "me," and I could cause those in my presence to feel uncomfortable. As a result, I was being modest by using "ours" and "we." instead of "I" or "me" even though I personally did those actions.  For example, in one of the faculty meeting, I always use "we" to indicate all teachers on my team did what we were asked to do. However, some teachers did not do what they were asked to do. But I used "we" to show team cohesiveness and discourage my own team members from criticism for their lack of efforts. 

In another occasion, I remembered an old essay that I wrote for a scholarship. I repeatedly used "I" to describe the actions that I did to appease the readers, so I could appeal to the readers that I personally did those actions.  I realized that I did not acknowledge other people who had contributed to my actions and paved the ways for me to accomplish those actions. For example, I wrote that "I made all efforts to study English." I could have written as "I was able to study English with the sacrifices that my mother had made to bring my siblings and me to America."

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet: To be or not to be, that is the question." Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56965/speech-to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question.

Weinstein, Lawrence and Finn, Thomas. Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are. Pearson 

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