Suggested
Question for Blog Post #8: What are the advantages and disadvantages of the
non-fiction “case study” (Loraine) vs. the more academic case study (Lin and
Fei)?
For Blog Post #5 on "Northern Realities, Northern Literacies" and "The Doodles in Context." Feel free to answer just one question and respond to just one colleague. What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of the idea of contrastive (intercultural) rhetoric? Has the issue of contrastive (intercultural) rhetoric come up in your tutoring or teaching of second language writers? If so, how? Describe your reactions to Brice's narrative about Phillip.
"Lorraine's Story" was an engaging read--warm and full of personality. It read quickly, and the form supported Goedde's argument about the benefits of integrating creative and academic writing. The essay invites reflection on approaches to academic writing and tutoring, but the evidence that it offers is limited to anecdotes about interactions with one particular student. Goeddes evaluates Lorraine's writing more subjectively than objectively. Though many readers may agree with the suggestions that Goeddes makes, Lorraine's personal preferences must also play a role. He challenges her to experiment, but there is no indication whether this experimentation has a lasting impact on her writing. Also, Goeddes mediates Lorraine's response to the creative writing experiment. As readers, we have only her reactions as he interprets them.
ReplyDeleteThe Fei case study is based on extended online interactions with Fei over a period of two years. By establishing and explaining exactly what will be measured, the authors give readers a sense that the methods used to evaluate Fei's writing will be consistent. The article feels both scientific and descriptive. The study of Fei's writing covers ten different written assignments and includes periodic self-assessments. Fei has the opportunity to indicate directly how she perceives her progress. The case study provides more context for Fei's experiences the essay does for Lorraine's. Though it makes for drier reading, the case study is much more detailed than the essay.
I agree with this. I'm curious though, which do you find more effective? Are the anecdotal observations in Lorraine's story enough to make you feel like you learned something?
DeleteFor me the Fei study provides a kind of rigorous, exhaustive proof whereas “Lorraine” provides, perhaps, an increased emotional range and, dare I say, something like, well, expediency. “Fei” might appeal toward a data driven dean; Lorraine might appeal to a prospective tutor…or donor. And again toward range, the studies, when taken together, provide a complicated, nuanced, global view of Writing Center dynamics that neither study would alone achieve. All to say, through shared interests and varied formal approaches, the studies provide something like an overview and a metaphor for Writing Center practice.
ReplyDeleteThe comparison of both approaches shows that creative writing is expressive of more than mere content (feelings) while academic writing is mostly about content. Hence so many questions from students about whether the paper "flows" because otherwise the content won't be clear. The goal of academic writing is to persuade the reader through reasoning as being an objective mode. Literature as a form of art makes us feel in a certain way and feelings are subjective. So there is a reason why one writing is "tedious" and the other is "frivolous" - each one picks the best means to achieve its ends. So I disagree with Lorraine that academic writing is "still way better." "Way better" for what? For Lorraine to integrate in the white American collegiate culture which she so much desires? If she thinks using some heavy dry academic style will gain her a bunch of cool broad-shouldered friends she is "way wrong." I also discern her desire to gain power and superiority over her Mexican friends by mastering "hardball intellectualism." I hope not. Either way she seems to be getting in academia for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteBut personality aside, I still seem to be missing what "personal essay" that exactly is and why it would be better as a story. It seems a nice exercise in creative writing. It would be different though to try and turn a strictly academic paper into a story and submit it instead of one. Most instructors would probably frown on that and refuse to accept it. Grading is hard enough as it is for us to try and grade a story 'objectively.' If that exercise is a way of saying that a student should be encouraged to integrate both creative and academic writing in a paper I find that rather bold and adventurous. Is that a way of saying that creative writing is superior and so will enrich academic writing? Again, neither writing is "better." Because someone might argue academic writing can also 'enrich' creative writing and so writers should integrate academic writing in their stories. I'm skeptical academic and creative writing complement each other.
I took a class last year called "writing in the disciplines" where our professors urged us to depart from the "wordy" and "tedious" academic writing in favor of a more inclusive, engaging style. In that class, we practiced transforming our writing so it would be more engaging and possibly be read the whole way through instead of just being skimmed for what the reader wanted to find. These two techniques for writing case studies are the perfect example of how a similar topic can be written in two completely different ways while still relaying the same information to the speaker. I find that both written pieces sufficiently educate me about an aspect of tutoring in the writing center. I think Lorainne's study is much easier to read and identify with than Lin/Fei and because of that it is more engaging thus more enjoyable. I will remember Lorainne's story and take home message more clearly than Lin/Fei because I was more engaged. I was able to skim some of the paragraphs and passages in the Lin/Fei studies because of the way the information was presented. I did not skim Lorainne's. One is not better than the other. I think the chosen style depends on how the author wants their essay to be read and perceived by the audience.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is important to consider audience when deciding to adopt either a more creative or more academic approach. I enjoy creative approaches as a reader and as a writer. The most enjoyable scholarship in my field can be both wise and witty. What department was your "writing in the disciplines" course a part of? Would you recommend the class?
DeleteI love Goedde's line on the last page: "Whereas academic writing requires intricate argumentation, creative writing demands risks and finesse."
ReplyDeleteAs a member of the Creative Nonfiction program, I wave my freak flag high. That is to say, I feel a lot of pride about my weirdo program--with less funding and more academic requirements for graduation than the Workshop, I think we essayists are one of the least understood MFA writing programs at Iowa. We aren't always journalists. We aren't always theorists. We aren't always memoirists, either.
We are (mostly) essayists in a field where we are constantly asked (and asking), "is this really nonfiction?" We spend hours researching a subject, even more hours trying to understand our own positionally on that subject, and then agonize over what our "voice" is (who am I as the narrator of this text and how responsible am I being?). And then we write.
I appreciate that Goedde acknowledges the discomfort Lorraine feels in trying to adjust to a creative voice. Her struggles with wanting to tell a narrative personal story, but also wanting to demonstrate "hardball intellectualism " and a "sense of power" with academic writing demonstrates how much we are inundated with attitudes that place power in the academic voice over all, of a hierarchy of knowledge tipped in favor of the canon; of the old white dudes who established and curated an archive based on their values.
The idea of the self being at risk on the page is a strong argument for creative nonfiction to be taught often and early in American education. Without a concerted effort to question the self in any piece of writing, how can we trust that the argument is sincere? And if it isn't sincere, reading it can be pretty boring. A case study is an incredible resource for growth, but I would hope that anytime someone writes about another person, they spend quite a bit of time examining where they themselves fit into the narrative.
End rant?
As a member of the same cult as Julie, I share many of the same thoughts. I also believe that Goedde sold himself short. In America at least, creative nonfiction has affected political and social change as effectively if not more effectively than academic writing. Slave narratives were used as propaganda during the abolitionist movement, Claudia Rankine's "Citizen" is used today to explain racial microaggressions in the post-Obama world, and ACT UP depended on the creative works of activist artists like Larry Kramer an David Wojnarowicz.
ReplyDeleteIf I write an essay for Buzzfeed about the nasty undercurrent of misogyny and transphobia in contemporary gay male subcultures, that essay will have more eyes on it than anything I could publish in an academic journal. Those eyes would belong to people in the general public as well as people in the academy.
In short, creative nonfiction casts a wider net. When students are learning about how best to argue and communicate their ideas, reaching the largest audience possible should be part of the conversation. Certainly, if you are only trying to win over your academic peers, write the academic essay. Academics love academic writing because it's a type of insider knowledge--a register that requires years of training. However, writing that really wants to change the world--writing with power--is almost always "creative" in some respects.
The Communist Manifesto was creative nonfiction--some of Marx's other writings were much more "academic." Many ancient writers, too, wrote in a form that we would more readily identify as creative nonfiction than academic writing. I'm thinking of Sei Shonagon, Plutarch, Thucydides, Herodotus etc.
Trumpism won't be beaten with academic essays. We already all agree that he's awful. Creative essays that appeal to the public, however, those can change minds.
In terms of considering strategies for my final paper (a personal essay), "Lorraine's Story" by Goedde was certainly more instructive. That said, the academic case study of Fei privileged content over style in a way that won me over -- perhaps because the subject matter was so interesting. It was also a reminder that just because writing is "academic" doesn't mean it has to be bloodless or abstruse. (In particular, I enjoyed the cleverness of the chosen pseudonym: that Fei was a frequent flyer and soon-to-be airline employee, and Fei in Chinese means "to fly.")
ReplyDeleteAs a creative writer and former English major, though, I admit, the tables and graphs in Fei's case study seemed a bit daunting. The Lorraine study, with its smooth storytelling, had the opposite effect, allowing me to more fully absorb Brian Goedde's observations and insights. His allusion to Paulo Freire was an appealing moment -- one that addressed part of the reason I believe creative case studies (and creative responses to assignments) pack more punch than academic ones. Goedde cites both Villanueva and Freire's point that "the rhetorical stance of the personal essay has been valuable in educating students of color who have been traditionally marginalized by the academy. ... Students can arrive at the political (and in turn shape the discourse) through the expression of the personal."
Acknowledging, even spotlighting, subjectivity, as one often does in creative nonfiction, seems especially important in the context of writing center research, which relies to a certain degree on anecdotal evidence. Even so, I won't write off (so to speak) academic case studies. Especially if they reflect -- rather than a desire to gain "power" through perceived authority -- the author's dedication to, and enthusiasm for, a chosen field.