As I stated, I enjoy writing in most cases, sure, but most of the critical papers I've written were very defined by the course I was in. There would be limited prompts or topics to choose from, and while I would naturally do my own research, most of my sources would be fairly dry peer reviewed scholarly journals from JSTOR. They would have interesting ideas, but generally, getting to those ideas would always be a bit of a chore. I would have to comb through the pages of articles to find lines that could support my argument and use them strategically so that I could reinforce what I agreed with while arguing against what I didn't. In this paper, however, I chose my primary source from one of my favorite YouTubers, ContraPoints. Her video was relevant to the course discussion, and I agreed with a lot of what she said, so it seemed like the perfect thing to write about. The problem was that I agreed with it too much.
I don't have to explain to the students of this class the importance of using quotes as evidence for one's own argument, instead of using them as the argument. It usually isn't a problem for me, because I'm generally a very opinionated person and I rarely agree entirely with the sources that I use. This semester, however, our main sources have been powerful women. Whether it's Hannah Gadsby,
Hannah Gadsby at TED2019, photo by Ryan Lash, TED Blog.
Regina Barreca,
Regina Barreca, Gina Barreca.
or the primary source of my essay, Natalie Wynn,
Natalie Wynn, March 30 2019, Instagram.
these are incredible women, and I found myself agreeing with them so much that it was hard to make my own argument. For my first draft, much of my topic sentences and paragraphs dedicated more time to addressing their opinions than my own. I was a bit conflicted because I felt that it was important to represent their arguments if I wanted to tie it into mine, but I needed to think more on how their thoughts related to mine, presenting their thoughts as the evidence as they were, and not the argument. It's a concept that hasn't been lost on me in other papers, but this is among the first times I've used evidence that aligned with my own beliefs as much as these women's did.
Throughout my revising progress, my main focus was to make sure I was arguing for myself, instead of my sources. I tried to rework paragraphs that began with someone else's opinion, such as one that started with, "Wynn’s stance in 'The Darkness'" (2). In that case, I simply bumped the sentence outlining Wynn's argument further into the paragraph, and rewrote the topic sentence to omit Wynn's name and simply address my stance (6). In other cases, my topic sentences were still phrased in a way that emphasized the points of other people, and I know there's still room for improvement. For example, a topic sentence I wrote was, "Similarly to Barreca, Gadsby sees these
self-deprecating jokes as an act of self-abuse, but her act Nanette also has implications for how
that self-abuse resonates throughout a community" (5). In the second half of the sentence, I tried to make clear the the paragraph was going to be an argument about her special, and not simply the argument of her special, however the focus of the sentence was still on Gadsby. For sentences such as this one, I was aware of the weight I put on Gadsby in the sentence and tried to balance it with the rest of the paragraph, but still knew that it could be improved if I could phrase it in a way that prioritized my own argument.
In some ways, this essay was more of struggle than ones I've worked on in the past simply because it was a subject I was interested in, discussing sources I liked too much. Still, working with material I cared about ultimately made the process more enjoyable, and while I know there's still room for improvement, I'm happy with having been able to take my argument as far as I did.
That sure is a good problem to have! I totally understand where you are coming from about getting too not your sources. I wrote a paper for a class this past spring where I found I had a similar problem. The paper was about twice as long as the one assigned for this class, and I was so interested in the subject. I spent hours of time finding more and more sources that I was interested in, instead of doing the real work I needed to for the paper. Eventually I narrowed it down and got it done, but it definitely was hard for me. However, I believe these kinds of papers are the ones that really make us grow as writers! Here's to writing more papers about things we are passionate about. I also had to tweak many of my topic sentences for my major project, as they were too source-focused. I also found it helpful to rearrange the order to the information, to put more emphasis on my arguments.
ReplyDeleteHi Bethany! I agree with you that when you write about something that you are interested in, it makes the writing process much easier. When it comes to quoting my sources in a paper, I consider them to be like the metaphorical building blocks that provide the support for my argument. However, like you stated in your blog post, disagreeing against a source can also have value for a paper.
ReplyDeleteHi Bethany! This is a great post. I really agree with you about agreeing with people. Even a lot of the specials we watched, I faced the same challenge. It is nice to agree and to have your own thoughts on an issue, but it can also be difficult to create that argument.
ReplyDeleteI think that from what I have read, you have done a really great job with explaining arguments and going with it.
Again, I think it is really cool that you were able to be interested in your major project topic, as that makes it so much more enjoyable and also helps to explore the ideas we have even as we agree!
Great post Bethany, have a wonderful summer!
I agree completely that combing pages of academic sources is difficult. The best way around this, I think, is to let your sources say what you want. After you find the sources you want to use, you can use Harris’s ideas to remix your project by editing or attacking the ideas of your sources. Combing articles and essays for nuggets of wisdom that make your thesis seem well supported is a boring chore. When I was in high school I had an English teacher who said “choke your essays and research papers with quotes and evidence. It makes what you have say that much more believable.” I’ve always tried to use this method. I think its funny that you have too much of your own commenting in your paper. My problem is that that I have too little of my own voice and too much explaining/evidence. As Tracey says “I think it’s a good problem to have.”
ReplyDelete