How Good is Your P.C.?

1
How Good is Your P.C.?

• An analysis of college students sensitivity to
  Politically Correct Terms

2
Side One

• It is argued that institutes of higher education
  are centers susceptible to politically correct
  movements including that of politically correct
  speech.
• Political correctness (PC) is often associated
  with attempts to place limits or boundaries on
  expressions of racist, sexist, or homophobic
  attitudes and feelings. PC is most often
  associated with such efforts on college and
  university campuses. Michael Shelton (1995)
• The media has recently taken notice of a trend
  in education that has actually been around for
  some time. This trend has been obvious to anyone
  well-acquainted with the goings-on in our
  citadels of higher learningthe term politically
  correct speech, covers most of the issues
  involved. Don Closson (1992)
• If institutes of higher education are indeed so
  affected by the PC movement and the implied
  necessity of correct speech, it is assumed that
  students would display the effects in their
  vocabularies.

3
Side Two

• It is argued that PC is more confined to the
  political realm than the educational.
• There is no hard, quantitative data to probe the
  extent or impact of a PC movement. Also, the
  sheer quantity of faculty engaged in higher
  educationsuggests that political viewpoints are
  far more divers than a PC norm. An objective
  examination of the status of PC on American
  campuses casts much doubt on the positions
  advanced by criticsit seems unlikely that there
  is much, if any, organized effort to program
  students with PC ideas. Shelton (1995)
• If it is the case that PC on campuses is not in
  fact an issue of significant impact than it is
  expected that students would not be inclined to
  incorporate politically correct speech into their
  vocabularies.

4
Methodology

• Using terms from top P.C terms lists a short
  vocabulary quiz was constructed in which
  descriptions of P.C tagged words were given.
  Students were asked to provide the term they
  would most often use in everyday speech for the
  definition
• Each description was assigned a Traditional term
  and a P.C. term answer
• The data was analyzed as a percentage of how many
  times a P.C term was used instead of the
  Traditional
• Global Language Monitor

5

• 1)What do you call the person that delivers your
  mail?
• Traditional (T) Postman, mailman PC Letter
  carrier
• 2) What do you call the person who gives you a
  ticket for speeding?
• T Policeman, Policewoman, cop PC Law
  enforcement officer, officer
• 3) What do you call somebody who does not walk
  but rather uses a wheelchair, or who uses a
  prosthetic limb or other aid for physical
  movement?
• T Handicapped, disabled PC Differently
  -abled
• 4) What do you call the person who brings you
  drinks and snacks on an airplane?
• T Stewardess/steward PC Flight attendant
• 5) What do you call someone who does physically
  see things?
• T Blind PC Visually Challenged
• 6)What do you call a person of African descent?

6
Politically Correct Results

Letter Carrier 0
Police Officer/Officer 31
Differently-abled 0
Flight Attendant 75
Visually Challenged 0
African American 13
Native American 75
Hearing Impaired 0
Verbally Challenged 6
Misguided Criminal/Insurgent 0
Firefighter 38
7
Further Analysis

• Determine if there is a significant statistical
  percentage of overall P.C usage in students
  vocabularies
• For example, out of 11 words, P.C. usage over 50
  was only found twice

8
Conclusion Thus Far

• So far it looks as though Side Two-which argues
  that students arent significantly affected by
  P.C. movements in their speech, is more accurate
• However, further research and data collection and
  analysis may vary the present results-for
  example, administering the vocabulary quiz to
  non-students may provide a better comparison for
  statistical analysis