Resource Roundup: End-of-semester Miscellaneous Edition

Nenyaki / Foter.com / CC BY-ND

This edition of the Resource Roundup features a variety of unrelated writing topics, which might be just right for you if you're feeling a little scattered at the end of the semester. There should be something in here to help you push through those last few papers—enjoy!

Punctuation
There is no more confusing punctuation mark than the humble comma, except for, perhaps, its cousin the semicolon. Used inappropriately, these tiny marks can completely obscure or change the meaning of your sentence. Learn about how to use commas here (be sure to check out the additional pages from the lefthand sidebar), and more about semicolons here.

Interdisciplinarity
If you have a few free minutes (or if you don't, but can't bear to type another word), have a listen to this interview with all-around interdisciplinary guy Edward Tufte. He has some interesting things to say about asking questions (food for thought for researchers and writers), and some great insights on taking a multi-disciplinary approach to life and learning.

Writing Groups
I know, I know—it's the end of the semester and the last thing on your mind is joining a writing group. And you don't even have time for one during the semester. Still, I encourage you to check out these two links (here and here) with info on the benefits of writing groups, and consider that a summer-time writing group might just be a great way to stay in practice over the break, improve last semester's seminar papers, and even get started on material that could later be used in your thesis or project support paper. Just something to think about!

Tips for seminar papers 
Sometimes graduate student writers seem hesitant to take a clear stance in their papers. Remember that a seminar paper is (in most cases) a paper that presents the writer's argument, research and sources that support that argument, and evidence that the writer argues against. Don't be afraid to clearly state your claim! After all, the purpose of your writing the paper is to add to the academic discussion about your topic, so you should be saying something different and new that other researchers have not explicitly said before. Here are some tips for addressing your audience, making an argument, and more about seminar papers.

As always, please get in touch if you'd like additional assistance with these or any other topics as you finish up your writing assignments for the semester! ~ Lahla

Writing tips: Sentence clarity

Make your writing clear as a bell!

cogdogblog / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

In my work as your MALS Writing Consultant, I have come across a few writing errors that almost all writers seem to make at some point. I'd like to tackle those on the blog occasionally, and give you some tips about how to avoid them. Here, I bring you two errors that are major culprits in the muddling of otherwise good writing, and sure to get your papers marked "CLARIFY!"

• The dreaded "this"—The word "this" certainly has its place in the English language, but 

often its use leads to ambiguity in graduate level writing. Think about how you use "this" in speech. For example, at a restaurant you might say, "I'll have this sandwich," while pointing at a menu item so the waiter can see which sandwich you're talking about. If he can't see where you're pointing, "this" is a meaningless indicator. The same is true in writing. 

When you refer to an idea from a previous sentence with the word "this," you must tell your reader what "this" is. It's especially important to do so in graduate-level, interdisciplinary writing, because the concepts presented in the sentence to which "this" refers may be quite complex and encompass several ideas. 

If you write a sentence that says, "This is important because . . ." I may have no idea what is important. So, saying something as simple as "This area of interdisciplinary study is important because. . ." can help your reader say, "Oh yeah, she was just talking about a certain area of interdisciplinary study, and this sentence is going to tell me more about it." 

• Beware long, convoluted sentences—For interdisciplinary writers who are consulting multiple types of sources from multiple disciplines to come to new conclusions, it can be hard be brief. Sure, many of your sentences are going to be long and complex—complex sentences linking multiple concepts are a mark of advanced writing—but they must be coherent. 

Read sections of your paper aloud to help you identify overly complicated sentences (they'll usually sound that way when you hear them). Remember that it’s your job as a writer to distill the information from sources and your own conclusions into something your reader can understand. Sometimes you can fix really long sentences by simply breaking them into multiple sentences, but sometimes a long, confusing sentence is the result of really not understanding your source material. Check in with yourself to make sure you understand the concept, then try writing the simplest sentence possible ("Interdisciplinarity involves multiple disciplines."), and elaborate from there.

Your trusty writing consultant can help you identify these writing problems and give you more feedback on solving them—just contact me for a consultation!

Happy writing,

~Lahla

Resource Roundup for Friday, March 1

Image from office.microsoft.com

Every now and then I’ll post a Resource Roundup here on the blog. It will feature links to articles, podcasts, and other sources useful or interesting to MALS students in your writing and research, plus tips for your current writing assignments. Here’s the first installment:

Writing mechanics tips

• Having trouble with sentence clarity? This handout from the Purdue Online Writing Center (OWL) can help. (Includes help with passive voice, parallel constructions, and transitions.) 

• For help deciphering your prof's comments on your papers, check out this MALS Writing Center link, as well as this Purdue OWL link for fixing the problems. 

• Eek! You're at the library and your copy of Turabian is at home. This quick guide comes to the rescue in a pinch. 

Good links

• Here's another argument (and some tips) for developing strong writing skills.

• This article talks about the benefits of the undergrad on-campus experience, but I think being on campus and getting involved is important for grad students, too. (Join a writing group! Check in with your writing consultant! Go to the library!) 

• Virginia Tech offers an interdisciplinary doctoral program called ASPECT. 

• This blog post poses some interesting questions about interdisciplinary research in the sciences—it reminded me of the topics some of you are covering in Joe Moran's Interdisciplinarity. What are your answers to the author's questions?

No Such Thing as Useless Knowledge

Last week I addressed the demons of doubt we’ll all face sooner or later during our MALS careers.  This week I’ve asked current MALS student Valerie Bodell to share her thoughts on how interdisciplinary graduate study has proven valuable both to her topic of interest and her outlook on life. Valerie is in her third year in MALS, and she’s also a full-time ETSU employee. Her program of study concentrates on the role that comics, as a form of literature, play in forming cultural and personal identity. She has presented several papers at graduate liberal studies conferences during the last few years, and presented at The Graphic Novel Conference in Oxford, UK earlier this month:

Rabbit Race by Valerie Bodell

 A Few Interdisciplinary Thoughts

  First of all let me say that panic and confusion are normal.  In addition, elements that crop up throughout your interdisciplinary studies that seem crazy and not applicable to your situation will probably turn out to be the valuable tools, advice, or points of view you should keep in mind.  Also realize that we’re here to learn.  Since we don’t know everything - and some days it feels as if we don’t know much of anything - we’re going to make mistakes, lots of them.  That’s normal too. 

Another characteristic of interdisciplinary studies is that everything connects to everything else.  Therefore there can be no such thing as useless knowledge.  Now I want to take a moment to applaud my fellow students who are pursuing high ideals and socially conscious studies.  That recognition out of the way, I can tell you that my topic is creating a comics autobiography.  Is this a frivolous goal?  No.  If your topic interests you, go for it.  You’ll find that it connects to the larger picture of humanity sooner or later. For example, I learned that comics can help victims address trauma.  Further, as I consider identity in our modern, electronic world, incidents like the Colorado shooting at the Batman movie strike me as role playing fantasies gone wrong.   Can exploring the enduring allure of comics like the Dark Knight series, and fantasy in many online role playing games, illuminate how most people separate electronic realities from physical realities?  Is the Colorado shooting incident about male identity?
.... Valerie Bodell, MALS Student

Giraffe, Tree, Lion by Valerie Bodell

One of the greatest powers of interdisciplinary thinking is that it conditions you to make such connections. Interdisciplinary scholarship celebrates knowledge and recognizes the value in all forms of creativity, not just for their own sake but as tools to help us better understand both the natural world and the human experience. I encourage you to embrace your MALS journey and always to look for ways that your interests fit into to the big picture.

It's Your Week!

Did you know that April 2-6 is National Graduate & Professional Student Appreciation Week? I confess that I did not know until today. Let me start out by saying that I do, indeed appreciate you all, and not only because I have a job because of you MALS students, nor because I was only recently a grad student myself (although both of these circumstances do play a part).

And while this "week," ironically, is only five days long, I give you all seven full days worth of appreciation. I appreciate you because you are taking the time and resources to better yourself as a citizen of this world. In my somewhat biased opinion as a MALS alumn, I think it takes a special kind of person to pursue interdisciplinary graduate studies. Not only are you in the midst of one of the more rigorous programs on campus in terms of critical thinking, writing, and research requirements, but you are likely doing so while being misunderstood by family, friends, strangers, and colleagues. It's easy to announce that you're getting your master's in biochemistry, astrophysics, kinesiology, or something else with a flashy, if narrow, disciplinary objective. Your program of study, however, takes a little more explaining to the uninitiated. You approach your scholarship with a complex, real-world problem in mind first, recognize that a single discipline cannot adequately address this problem, and after all that go about learning not only the theories of interdisicplinary scholarship but also those associates with multiple disciplines. Impressive, I think, but try giving an elevator speech on that and you'll run out of floors far before you finish explaining the word "interdisciplinarity."

Who knows? It might take a fellow interdisciplinarian to appreciate one, especially while you're  knee-deep in seminar paper drafts, style manuals, and cultural theory books, your fingers are stained with highlighter, and you can't remember your own name for lack of sleep. But know this - what you're doing is worth it, and I appreciate you for having the guts to pursue MALS.