Absolutely, Carol. This is an issue of formality or linguistic register.
Interjections carry more weight when with friends; I think it is Deborah
Tannen who says that interjections have a primarily social function,
expressing more of a shared, group feeling/affirmation. When used in
isolation, especially in formal writing, it comes off as assumptive and
self-centered. Why assume that the reader will be able to partake in the
emotive force of the interjection? More importantly, why assume that the
reader agrees with you? Without that agreement, interjections are useless in
my opinion; other forms are necessary to make a point accessible to all
readers.

John

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 8:12 PM, Carol Morrison <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Somewhat related to but not quite in the same vein of Scott's "Bad English"
> thread, is the questionable use of interjections in academic writing. Is it
> safe to tell students that interjections are typically not found in academic
> or formal writing? I have a student who had a continuous string of
> interjections in his response paper he wrote to one of the essays in the
> text on marriage. "Yikes!"  "Not this guy!" "Wow!" were some of the
> responses he would write following a summary of what the author stated. He
> also began many of his sentences with "Yes, I agree that..." or "No
> thanks,..." How can I explain that this is not an appropriate style for a
> college essay? On the informal to formal scale I explained in class, this is
> what I would consider too informal. Do you agree?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Carol
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface
> at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or
> leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/