Essay 3: Say Something

 

say-something-imageOverview

“Academic conference” papers represent an intermediate point between inventio (invention, reading, and prewriting) and actio (delivery, or publication). In the humanities, our projects and publications are often theoretical, observational, and discursive (rather than quantitative, experiment-based, or primary-research based as in the sciences). They are argument driven, but the arguments and support are different than what most undergraduates are used to. In scholarly theoretical work, writers may argue that an issue or event is worth paying attention to, argue for how a particular trend or condition came to exist, or argue about the implications of a practice or product. In other words, scholarly writing doesn’t always follow a five-paragraph essay format and doesn’t often arrive at a concrete conclusion in the same way college essays do.

Perhaps because our research isn’t quantitative, scholars often present parts of projects or works in progress at academic conferences to test out their ideas and theories, to get feedback from other scholars about their work, and to share their project with others who may be working on similar topics or overlapping topics (topics in cognate disciplines that may inform work in other fields).

Conference papers aren’t considered finished or publishable work, but rather, a tentative step in that direction. For some scholars that do both scholarly and popular publishing, conference style papers are often easily translated into essays for popular publications — they are smart, informed, thoughtful, and present the author’s perspective.

Assignment

Write an informed theoretical essay on the topic you’ve been working with throughout the semester. The paper should present your own argument (or discussion, theory, angle, interest, or lens), but you should take into account what we’ve talked about in class—contextualizing the conversation, inviting your reader to the discussion, and locating your place within it.

In preparation to write this essay, you will be asked to write an informal, brief proposal that explains your topic, describes your approach and potential sources, and addresses questions and concerns you have about the project.

Final essays should be 8-10 pages in length (not including references), double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1 inch margins and a proper title. Essays should adhere to MLA (or APA) conventions for citations and documentation.

Suggestions

  • Use quotation sparingly, and only when it’s needed (specific language desired, cannot be paraphrased, etc). Paraphrase instead.
  • Use talking headings (functional or descriptive).