Just for Fun

I admit that I hear myself spout nonsense from time to time, though always with the best of intentions. Here's a way to have fun with a bit of that academic jargon you sometimes hear from your professors. Check out this academic sentence generator!

The Power of Metaphor

Which metaphors do you use when you think about writing? Which do your professors use? What are the possibilities of trying out some new metaphors in thinking about your writing?

Metaphors shape the choices we make as we approach writing. For example, if you’re writing an “argument” paper, you might find that you represent positions other than your own with hostility, that you write defensively and perhaps even overstate your true position as a way of overwhelming your reader and/or any potential opposition. You might think of the act of writing as an act of creation or a task or a process or a conversation or an exploration or an act of building. Each of these different ways of imagining writing will inflect your reasoning and your understanding of audience.

I’m always trying on new metaphors – both as I come to terms with my own challenges as a writer and as I work with students new to the university. I feel like this helps me notice my practices and assumptions with a fresh eye and sometimes gives me insight into possibilities I had previously overlooked. What about writing as weaving? Writing as sculpture or architecture or cultivation or cartography? What if we imagine essays and papers as trees…or video games…or forms of transportation?

What are your preferred metaphors and how do they help you better understand the act of writing? I’m always looking for more ideas!
~Wendy

Hanging Out with Quotations

A common tendency for students is to introduce or conclude a paragraph with a quotation. This can be tricky. You cannot trust that your reader (including your professor) will understand the quotation's purpose in your essay, so, you should fully explain your reasoning behind a particular quotation. It really is a judgment call.

Opening a paragraph with a quote does leave you room to explore its significance, while concluding with a quote usually stops analysis in its tracks. A token of advice?

When it comes to quotations...don't leave them hanging!

-James, Mary

(Image courtesy of Clipart)

To Quote or Not to Quote

To quote or not to quote...that is the question. First, a distinction ought to be made between the need for quotations as opposed to the need for citations in an essay. Citations are simply crediting the work parenthetically after an idea is borrowed, without quoting. Quotations should be used more discriminatingly; as scholarly as these excerpts make your writing look, many of the author's ideas can be summed up in your own words and cited.

So, when is it appropriate to quote? One occasion is when the language of the text itself is a factor in your argument. For instance, if you were writing about Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn to showcase the racial barriers between characters, a summary of a line would simply not create the same effect as say quoting "'NOW, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a slave no more.' 'En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck. It 'uz planned beautiful, en it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't NOBODY kin git up a plan dat's mo' mixed-up en splendid den what dat one was'" (38-39). Here, Jim, the runaway slave, is juxtaposed with the title character. Specifically, Twain's use of phonetic vernacular exemplifies the racial and cultural barriers between the two characters. In this case, you see, a summary of the line would simply not create the same effect.

Other times "to quote:"

• If the text holds historical value
  
• If a particular line or section jumps out at you
• If the line(s) is essential to the storyline, argument, character development, or context as explored in your essay

-James Morganti

Citing & Writing

Okay, so you've finished your three hundred page book and your professor recently assigned a lengthy argument-driven essay. Such is life as a college student, right? At this point, your stress level can either remain constant or rocket sky-high, depending on the steps you take. In an effort to keep your stress level at a minimum, these series of posts will explore the ins-and-outs of drawing from text in a persuasive essay.

Upon receiving an essay prompt, many students move to write a largely argument-driven draft, only returning to the heaving mass of text to grasp blindly for quotations. You should avoid this situation at all costs, as the excerpts chosen in this way are almost always repetitive or irrelevant. Don't reference the text just to make your essay longer, fulfill a prompted quota, generalize or summarize. Quotations and citations have a great deal of potential, serving a vital function in your writing.

How will you unluck their potential?

-James Morganti

Your Paper: A Great Debate

Now that you've introduced readers to your topic and thesis, it's time to delve into your analysis. Body paragraphs are critical to your paper as they support, build, and expand the scope of your thesis. Without quotes, your paper tends to lack authority. Where's the proof? Where's the evidence?

If you were to engage in a debate, you would choose a side and offer facts, legislation, arguments, research, etc. to back it up. The same can be said for writing, substituting quotes from the text as defense for your argument. If you were debating without relying on supporting research, your side could be so easily dismissed. Personal opinion is not a reputable source for an argument or an essay.

You want to sway your audience, make them see your side. Perhaps your topic is edgy, maybe it goes against the mold. Your task, therefore, is to convince readers that your thesis is valid. The best way to do that? As you would for a debate, provide ample confirming evidence.

In the coming weeks, I will be running several posts by former peer tutor James Morganti. He will further discuss strategies to consider when drawing quotations from a text. Hopefully, you will find our perspective beneficial as you construct your own great debate--your paper.

~Mary

Harvesttime Wandering

Students often come into the Writing Center intent on “getting started,” focused on achieving clear objectives like writing an introduction or listing their thesis and topic sentences. And we’re always happy to help with that – it’s what we do. But something we could all benefit from – whether we’re writing or going about our daily lives – is wandering a bit more, taking time away from the careful pursuit of mapped goals.

It’s harvest-time in Connecticut and the Farmer’s Markets are colorful with winter squashes, fresh sweet peppers, the final bulgy tomatoes of the season. The leaves are falling but it’s not yet cold enough to hurry your steps. People get out this time of year – they pick apples and admire the scarecrows in each other’s yards. We take time to notice, to appreciate, to gather, to wander.

Similarly, in writing the shortest distance between two points is not always the most useful (or enjoyable!) distance to cross. Sometimes it’s better to wander a bit – start off on an unfamiliar path, use your inner sense of direction without consulting the “map” of structured outlines and forms, close your eyes and jump without knowing where you will land. If you’re willing to take chances like this, you allow your mind to work in ways that may be richer and more complicated – if not always as easy to recognize immediately. But wandering offers you a chance to notice, appreciate, and gather ideas so that you move through the territory of your writing in a more intimate and observant fashion than you might if you had proceeded in a linear, purposefully directed approach from the beginning.

There are lots of ways to do this. You might read the assignment and take a walk while you think about it. In the Writing Center we often suggest that writers choose a part of the reading they’re working with – a quote they like or maybe one that confuses them – and use this as a starting place, doing some writing that makes use of the quote in a way that speaks to a part of the assignment – speculating, stretching, turning language around in order to approach it from different angles. Another wandering start may involve simply having a conversation exploring different points of entry into the assignment, marking up the paper and taking note of key language, drawing arrows, grouping ideas, asking “how” and “why” often. Yet another path to take might involve drawing a map or chart as you walk through your thoughts, for example listing key characters/quotes/ideas from one reading across one axis and down the other listing characters/quotes/ideas from another reading, marking points of intersection with your observations about the suggestive possibilities of these combinations.

We don’t always find it easy to value time spent wandering. It can seem “unproductive” or “inefficient,” but time spent exploring early in your writing allows you to accumulate a richer, more complicated cornucopia of material to which you can return throughout your drafting and revision process.

Happy Harvesting!

~Wendy