4th Grade Reading and Writing Skills?
I wrote a novel. The novel that I wrote, MindField, needed to be checked for grammatical errors, so I obtained a ghostwriter. This assistance helped in achieving my goal of spreading the message of the book.
Some people with “excellent” skills in the English language have criticized the book, despite them NOT understanding what the book was all about (!) Truthfully, I do not feel demoralized or defeated by this “vast” (i.e., micro-) minority that likes to focus on the negative aspects of my writing style. It was actually the vast majority of the readers who were very impressed to learn about how the Deaf community uses American Sign language at an equal level of abstraction in the visual modality, compared to how hearing people use English language in the verbal modality.
But here is something that you need to understand about me. As the author of MindField, despite of my so-called “4th grade level” skills– I WROTE a book! And many readers have given positive testimonials about their experience in reading it. This tells me that I shouldn’t listen to those infinitesimally small number of pessimistic reactions that come from the purveyors of negativism.
But the crucial issue has nothing to do with having a so-called “4th grade” level of reading and writing skills. You see, I am actually a by-product of the AG Bell ideology. It took me 18 years of being stuck with that mindset before I realize the truth of who I am. I learned American Sign Language at Gallaudet, the only liberal arts university for the Deaf in the world. That was when I became a (truly) “normal” person, when I finally found a language that is natural to me, which enabled me to interact fully with other human beings!
I married a wonderful deaf woman that graduated from Gallaudet and we raised two deaf children who grew up without the oppressive AG Bell ideology being forced upon them. They were then able to acquire a natural language. My two deaf children became what they are now and they cause me to be quite proud, because they were able to experience what I was not able to experience, a completely normal childhood where they could develop complete communication skills and be fully capable of interacting with others on an equal basis..
I have come to realize that a majority of the hearing teachers of the deaf, and also a few deaf teachers of the deaf, all across the country also have “4th grade” level skills in schools where either sign language or the oral method is used. I often had to “decode” my conversations for these teachers and dumb them down, because they did not have the intelligence to be able to communicate above the 4th grade level. This is the reason why many deaf people also have 4th-grade level reading and writing skills. It’s not because we are incapable of learning, it’s because the teachers are unable to teach at a higher level. Many of you know this is true!
And by the way, I really cannot blame my parents for making the decision that they made, based on the information they were given, because they told me that they thought the AG Bell people knew what they were talking about and they were convinced that the AG Bell ideology was a very successful one. Many parents have said the same thing, and also many parents refuse to realize that they made a huge mistake in deciding to place their trust in AG Bell and their ancillary so-called professionals.
Be that as it may, 90% of the people that have purchased MindField are hearing people and ASL students who, by reading the book, came to realize the worth and equal status of ASL and the American Deaf Culture compared to English and mainstream American culture.
John F. Egbert
Posted on February 11th, 2008 by egbertpress
Filed under: Uncategorized
Even famous authors have editors…you did the creating and writing of the book, so a ghostwriter is not what you needed, but an editor.
Peggy Parsons was another author who left “Deaf English” in her autobiography. This can have an useful purpose at times…otherwise it can interfere with the message of the book.
Important post you did here.
People equate ability to write a novel with 10th+ grade writing skills. This is a big fallacy you aimed to destroy here.
I wrote an epic - The Deaf Child mythology - also in English. I knew that its English grammar could vastly improve. I decided to focus on ASL first and then later tackle its English in any way it deserve.
Let all those ASL naysayers or “the deaf have low English” whiners know that ASL EQUALS English in many ways. In many ways ASL is more eloquent. In some ways English has its advantages over ASL. It is what comparing two languages is all about.
Congratulations on the novel! I did read some and was impressed on how well it was written. Thanks for answering a magging question I had.
Another novel?
John,
For many years I served as a ghostwriter for grantwriting, articles, theses, dissertations (no names here!) . . . And I enjoy my reputation as not only a good writer but also a reliable proofreader who knows a lot of English rules.
Each book is written for a specific audience. MindField is a good book for a general readership because it was written that way. Critics are important if and only if they make a suggestion or two. If they don’t have any suggestion, then they are bad critics.
Pursue good critics!
Carl
Hi cnkatz,
I have two more books to do but at this time, DBC and Deaf babies are my #1 priority.
And also I have given up my love for fishing as a Professional Bass fisherman and will not enter any tournaments this summer.
John
Hello John,
I met you at DeafNation Expo in Pleasanton, CA with Mr. & Mrs. David Reynolds last October. I already suggested you to read one of the most nasty articles in the Outlook Section dated March 10, 1996 in the Washington Post newspaper. The author is Lew Golan.
People may think what he does and how he does for a living is crude and objectionable towards the Deaf Community and the Deaf Education.
Thanks,
Dan K.
Dianrez is correct (see #1). Some people really do not understand what “ghostwriter” means.
Ghostwriter is not the same as editor.
Ghostwriter means a person who writes something for you. Then the ghostwriter’s paper would have to be edited!
Editor is THE final person, not the other way around.
If you want to be labelled as a writer or to see books on shelves in bookstores or even in the Library of Congress, with your name on the spine “JOHN DOE,”, you would have to pay a ghostwriter to write something for you. The ghostwriter has to pay the editor for editing. The ghostwriter would consult a lawyer first — to make sure that the person who wants to be a “writer”.
Sometimes a “fake” writer and a ghostwriter get into trouble. The latter would exit eternally disgraced.
For example: President Bush hired a ghostwriter to write for his speech on 9/14 (three days after 9/11). He wanted the ghostwriter to write few words that would shake the world — few words that would be remembered forever.
Sure enough, the ghostwriter wrote for President Bush. Bush was very fond of the few words composed by the ghostwriter. What were the few words the ghostwriter made that made President Bush famous — not for only 15 minutes but for many years. Bush declared to the world “Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are the Axis of Evil.” These words really, really, REALLY hit the world.
What happened to Bush’s ghostwriter? He became proud and boastful. He told his friends that it was he who ghostwrote for Bush. One of the friends was taken aback because any ghostwriter would never reveal his profession. A person who is editor can reveal his profession, but not ghostwriter. For some reason, the word about the ghostwriter in question slowly travelled to the White House. Nevertheless, when
Bush learned about that, he fired him on the spot!
Bush or any individual can reveal the name of his ghostwrtier, but a ghostwriter cannot reveal anything UNLESS he wants to blackmail Bush or any individual for not receiving anything “quid pro quo.” Also, a ghostwriter is caught as a plagiarist if widely-read people do an exegsis of the work.
I read John’s book and didn’t notice grammatical errors. I was too busy reading the story and enjoying the plot. I think he did a fine job with the book and commend him for doing it!!
Your site and book were recommended to me by the developer of a web site by UR, the non-profit owners of national swedish radio and swedish television ( http://www.ur.se/Teckensprakswebben/Startsida/). I read (and forwared) with particular interest your blog about what schooling choices were made for you while growing up (think it is a february entry).
I am an American settled in Sweden with a family - two boys, first of which was healthy, second of which was born with serious abdominal complications, and was recently diagnosed at age three with moderate to severe hearing loss (about 60-80dB).
We’ve had an incredible two months with hearing aids, developing verbally, while we were immediately enrolled in TSS (sign language as support) courses, and also parenting courses where we met all of the hearing rehabilitation team that supports hearing disabled in the country of Sweden.
They have pushed us to move our son to a special school, where they have hearing, slight loss, heavy loss, deaf, hearing plus neurological, and a group for multiple handicaps. A new faciltiy is being built and will be opened in August, and we have just decided to move him from the current safe, happy, close montessori preschool (where our oldest son attended and who has done everything they know how to support him and us - extra special teacher, blowing toys, mouth exercises, fun singing to songs, plasticmats on the table tops…) to this new school where they are bi-lingual (swedish and swedish sign language). Tough decision since he is so comfortable and seems to be making incredible verbal progress (3 words in December have become 50+ now), but he also fastens SO fast to signs…the clincher was when I heard several times in the past weeks ” let him learn verbal and sign communication, and then HE can choose”…
Complicating even further of course is that our household is already bi-lingual, Swedish and English, so our decision is to only use Swedish sign language (even when I speak english, I sign in Swedish), so it becomes tri-lingual. I had already taught him some signs pre-diagnose from by “baby sign language” books.
We are learning fast, and think this new way of communicating is easy to learn (it isn’t true sign language, although we are paid to enroll if we wish into sign language courses for parents), and our son leans the signs so fast and is so happy that he knows that we understand him.
Just wanted to share.
Lisa