Tirp #2

On The Right Plath To Better Writing

In his essay “Inventing The University”, David Bartholomae notes that individual speakers don’t speak through themselves but “through the voice of the community” and that he likes to see students as individuals who “have to appropriate (or be appropriated by) a specialized discourse”. Bartholomae sees writing as something that speaks through students and can’t really be created by students, only interpreted and repurposed. This speaks to the idea that academic papers are mostly products of what the professor asked of the student and other supplemental materials that they cited while writing it. This thought is something that occurs to me every now and then when having to write an academic paper for class, specifically research essays. When prompted by professors to write academically, it’s often very hard or impossible to accurately express oneself and be cognizant of other types of writing.

I had to write a research essay for a poetry class a few semesters back. The purpose of the assignment for which I wrote “Issues Of Identity Within The Poetry Of Sylvia Plath” was to explore a specific issue involved in a poet that was studied in that class and how it reflects their work as a whole. I approached this piece first by reading through her poems, specifically ones I studied in that class, and seeing how different themes repeated in her poetry. I had a very “top-down” approach to writing the paper, as I tried to find at least three separate topics I could talk about and delve into within the body of the essay. I go into deep analysis over how her poetry relates to her suicide and previous attempts, how she talks about historical events, her relationships with her father and lovers, and her sense of self. In a way, my writing on this paper is evidence of my academic upbringing, as I took what is more or less a “five paragraph” writing structure. Bartholomae’s idea that student writing only exists though appropriations of other writing holds up here, as I take what is a structure that is largely taught in schools, as well as mostly use information that I cited from other sources that have studied Plath. However, I do express some original ideas here, which speak to the idea that students can “create” while writing academic papers.

Arguably, since I took such an academically rigid approach to this essay, one could argue that I was writing mostly for my professor and not for myself. Peter Elbow talks about the virtues of freewriting in his essay “Closing My Eyes As I Speak: An Argument For Ignoring Audience”, in which Elbow elaborates that freewriting allows one to “cultivate the private dimension: the value of writing in order to make meaning to oneself, not just to others”. Whether or not this is possible in an academic context is up for debate. I would argue that since I was able to choose who I wrote my academic paper about, the academic paper I wrote on Sylvia Plath is free writing to a certain extent. I chose her out of a fascination with her and there are moments within the paper where I come to conclusions outside of any cited sources that speak to my interpretations of her writing. In a sense, parts of free writing exist within this otherwise rigidly structured paper. Elbow also argues that during the free writing process, the writer acts “only as a speaker, sender, or emitter- not as a receiver or audience”, which is true here as well. I was specifically writing the paper for a professor, although the writing itself is sometimes completely from me. My need to conform to what I think my professor would deem acceptable, however, inhibits the amount of free writing in the piece. As a student, it often becomes harder to create valuable writing, as the writing is often tailored to the teacher’s preferences.

As I’m often aware of the academic process and often write towards a professor, the paper began to feel a bit perfunctory at times. In a way, it felt overtly structured, which bothered me, but I knew would appeal to my professor who enjoys when papers are tightly structured. Often, when professors act for papers written in specific ways that don’t always jive with the way I write, I become aware of the limitations of academic writing. While it’s true that I’ll often have to write to other people and have to write specifically how they would want, there’s a lot to be said for writing what comes naturally to oneself. Writing for anyone else and in different methods that one’s not comfortable with ultimately culminates in an artificial type of writing, and shouldn’t we always aim to be true to who we are through our writing?