John,
In a rough kind of sense, I agree with you, but one pattern we can find in the work of successful writers is a generous metadiscourse, comments within the text about the text as a text. In that sense, "I agree" is more useful than "gee" or "wow." A good writer is often manifestly present within a text, though perhaps in a way different from the way that happens in speech. "They Say/I Say" offers academic "templates" for it.
If we tell students that a formal text is bereft of human perspective, we are swinging the pendulum too far the other way. It reminds me of the days when we couldn't write "I," but had to write "one," as in "One gets up around six in the morning and likes to read the paper over one's Cheerios." There is a huge disjunct between the formal stance and the uniqueness of the detail. One result is that we edit out experience and produce disembodied thoughts.
I also wonder to what extent we should preemptively establish what makes an effective text. Do our students have anything to add to that conversation? Do they ever get a chance to write to each other or do we simply assume it's all written for a teacher?
I like the idea that we don't want to sound self-important. (But what could be more self-important than much overly formal writing? Our students are often encouraged to present themselves as experts when they are anything but.) We also don't want to assume agreement without having done the work of creating it. I'm not convinced that editing out interjections will get us there.
Craig
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Dews-Alexander
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 9:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Interjections
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]<mailto:[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/
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/
|
