This is a personal essay, or so I
thought. Theories of Intelligence had
many aspects of a personal essay. It was an exploration of an internal conflict
or question. “This isn't a research paper” I thought. So, I read it again and
worked my way through my criteria that I had established for a research essay
in exercise 2. This changed my perspective because much of the essay, in fact,
matched my criteria. However, what really made me realize that this was a
research essay, were two features that I didn't recognize the first time.
The book asks “how should it [the
essay] use information, and what kinds of information?” I noted that credible
sources needed to be used and personal stories were ok as long as they weren't the
main evidence. In other words, personal stories are good for transitions,
examples, evaluating evidence and connect with the reader. The first time I
read the essay I had assumed the personal stories were the main objective of
the essay. However, the second time I read it I realized they were mostly used
as anecdotes or as a way to connect to the subject. Instead, many credible
seeming journals and articles were used to present ideas and theories. The life
experience in turn worked with these sources to make them understandable and
relate-able. When I realized that the essay met this part of my criteria it pretty
much set my mind that this was actually a research essay.
The second critical criteria I
mentioned earlier actually changed as a result of this essay. The book asked “What
presence should the writer have?” I said enough to engage the reader but not as
much as, let’s say, a personal essay. Before I read Theories of Intelligence, I don’t think I fully comprehended that a
research essay could be that personal. I didn't realize the writer could be so
interwoven into a type of writing which I had always considered much more
formal.
Finally the book asked us “what
determines conventions of a genre like the college research paper?” I responded
that the audience determines the formality, the presence or the structure of
any paper. However, I’m not actually quite sure. Yes, the audience effects the
paper, but I’m not sure what, if anything at all, provides basic rules for a
research paper. Maybe that’s exactly it, there are no established guidelines for
essays, but honestly I don’t know.
Great post, Javier. I really like how you worked through some of the questions in the book in a thoughtful way. One theorist argues that the "research paper" is a non-genre, that there's really no such thing. He argues that research is a source of information that can inform any piece of writing. I do think, however, that one definition of genre is a form that it is a response to a recurring rhetorical situation. The research paper assignment certainly recurs. My daughter starting writing them in the fifth grade.
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