"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." --Henry Ford
Within your place of work you will notice that members of your workforce have differences such as gender, race, age and sexuality. However these differences don't just exist in your workforce, you may find them in your social groups and also sports teams. The question is, do you value our diverse culture as much as you should do?
Diverse speech is something that you should value. The way in which individuals speak differently to you, due to differences in gender, race, age and sexuality should not be perceived as a problem. In the workplace equality is crucial in order to work together as a team. Every word that each person says should be valued just the same, because who knows whether the idea your colleague is giving to the table is just an addition to the brainstorming or will become the reason for your businesses financial success.
Deborah Tannen, a language and gender theorist suggests that the reasons for male and female conversation differs. For example men stereotypically look to build status in conversation and therefore will frequently interrupt women, and will use imperatives in order to express dominance whereas women look to provide and receive support. These gender differences can benefit you in searching for your career for example expressing dominance is a key skill attached to a managerial career, and the need to provide support is a key skill in order to be a teacher. However just because you like to be dominant, doesn't mean you have to be a manager, and just because you don't like to be dominant, doesn't mean you can't be a manager, it's just an idea.
Commentary: I used synthetic personalisation such as "you" and "your" in order to make the article more personal, which I hope will result in each individual reader feel involved, so they are more likely to engage in the article, and want to read on and take in what is being said.
The use of rhetorical questions such as "do you value our diverse culture as much as you should do" persuades the reader to think about the question in more depth, so that they gain an opinion of themselves, however they don't have to provide their answer.
