Sunday, February 25, 2007

Paper

I have a question about the paper & figured others might benefit from hearing the answer, which is why I'm posting it on here instead of just emailing Andy. Is this paper supposed to be a formal thesis paper (no first person, very structured, no contractions, etc.) or can it be somewhat conversational, reflective journal, investigating our thoughts? Thanks!

7 Comments:

Blogger Tiffiny Harris said...

Well, I am actually starting to sit down and write my paper now and I hope it does not have to be very structural. I probably will not do contractions but I am planning to put a lot of personal thoughts in my paper. I hope that is ok.

10:26 PM  
Blogger kate said...

i was wondering the same thing so i stayed away from personal thoughts but if we're allowed to use them i'd like to go back and change some things...

12:57 PM  
Blogger Andy Duncan said...

No paper topic anyone is working on in this class requires the pronoun "I." You're not writing about yourself; you're writing about texts that exist independently of you.

That being said, unless you're plagiarizing, you can't write a paper in this class or any other class without that paper being full of your thoughts and opinions. If you're not sharing your thoughts and opinions on these texts, what do you have to write about?

With rare exceptions, first-person writing in an undergraduate critical essay tends to indicate simple wordiness and/or laziness and/or timidity and can easily be edited out. Example:

"In my opinion, Neil Gaiman clearly has issues with cats. Lest you think I'm crazy, consider the evidence."

That's the sort of thing I get handed sometimes, and it's pointless. Here's the vastly improved rewrite of that passage:

"Neil Gaiman clearly has issues with cats. Consider the evidence."

2:48 PM  
Blogger Andy Duncan said...

P.S.: I don't mind contractions at all, but I do hope your papers are both structured and conversational. If they're not structured, they won't make any sense. On the other hand, if you're trying NOT to be conversational, you're likely to wind up sounding pompous, stilted, artificial. Come up with ideas and arguments that are uniquely yours, and explain them as clearly and gracefully as possible. When in doubt, say what you mean.

2:56 PM  
Blogger Andy Duncan said...

At this link is the first paragraph of a non-fiction book chapter I wrote. While this may not be the world's best prose, it nevertheless exemplifies the points I'm trying to make: It's not in first person, and yet it's one opinion after another. It's considerably more formal than what I might post in a chat room, or on my own blog, or in an e-mail to a friend; but it's as clearly stated as I could make it, with (I hope) a minimum of pomposity or pointless verbiage. Does this help?

3:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mainly the issue I was having is that in some parts of my paper I wish to address the reader - such as "Do you blah blah blah" in a rhetorical question kind of way. I know in English that's not allowed, so I was wondering if the same rule held true here?

11:28 PM  
Blogger Andy Duncan said...

I don't mind second-person rhetorical questions -- though it's possible, of course, that the rhetorical question as easily could be third person: "Does anyone blah blah blah," for example, instead of "Do you blah blah blah."

11:36 PM  

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