SLANG?

When thinking about language, especially the English language, one cannot deny the use of 'slang.'  Many people of course consider slang as a socially inappropriate use of language, but really, in most cases, slang often represents an informal use of language.  We can consider the term "cool" and the way it is used in culture.  Formally, the term cool refers to temperature, but informally, cool refers to something that warrants approval of someone or something that is novelty.  Cool becomes a slang because of its informal use in language . 

There many examples of slang that have also become inappropriate in social settings.  Read classic poety aloud in a room full of teenagers and you'll know what I mean.  This list continues to grow in our culture according to use and the way people use words.  Slang often begins with a partiular group of people who use a word in a specific context and the term spreads like wild fire, but celebrities pocess the power of using a word once on a sitcom, movie or in a song and suddenly a once innocent word now means something dreadfully grotesque. 

How does slang relate to writing?  I know you were asking that.  Slang directly relates to writing because the majority of writing either represents soceity or becomes a commentary of society.  Regardless of purpose, writing allows for the author to explore language and use langauge in a valuable and/or realistic way.  If writing represents our culture, it will represent our slang and eternize "cool" or "rad" by exploiting the users. 

Writing invites us to use words differently as well.  For example, the countless poets and song writers who have developed slang terms into words.  Shakespeare (for those who believe him to be responsible for his empire) contributed thousands of words to the English language through his writing.  At the time, his plays were considered entertainment and the slang he used often elaborated a point or dug deep into a characters development.  These puns and innuendos became part of our language and part of our society today. 

To conclude my thoughts, slang gets treated unfairly in our culture because many people really don't understand its purposes.  The intention of ones meaning really deserves criticism and not the words they use.  What is being said? How is it being said?  These should be our concerns.  And for all authors out there, continue evolving our language by exploring its options, because the moment you stop, our culture dies with its language.