Project 1 Construct with Revision
Original construct proposal
I would like to explore how pronoun usage defines the writer's relationship with his or her audience. I am unsure if any research has been done in this area. But I often feel that when pronoun antecedents are clear, readers have a better understanding of their relationship to the work they are reading. I think of Michael Moore, in particular, when I discuss pronouns in freshman English classes. Michael Moore tend to run heavy in his usage of "you" as a general referral to his audience and as a way to connect to the audience members, but this general second person pronoun can also be recognized as limiting his audience to, possibly, those individuals with lower education levels. The other reason I like (and ask for) clear pronoun antecedents is to help encourage a more academic tone in my students' writing. I would like to see if any research exists on this topic and, hopefully, solidify my position on this issue.
Revised construct proposal
Writers who have a sense of their identity/persona as writers, who have a familiarity of the writing that occurs in their genre or field, and who use personal pronouns intentionally within their writing do so as a means to connect with their intended audiences. The use of personal pronouns also helps to engage the readers in the topic and to insert the author into the field he or she is writing in through staking claim on the research he or she did and the argument being made. The personal pronoun has, in a way, become a necessity and the rule in higher-level academic writing. A problem of surprise and possible acceptance plagues undergraduate writers when they are confronted with this sort of pronoun freedom and see it modeled in scholarship. Undergraduate then question the validity of what they were taught in high school. To reduce the trauma and adjustment period that incoming college freshman go through when reading academic writing that practices personal pronoun usage, high schools should teach and exemplify proper and responsible use of personal pronouns and discuss how such use pertains to authorial identity/persona and their authority as writers.
YB,
ReplyDeleteI am not totally clear on what your construct is. A student taught not to use PPs in HS might put it as:
Good (or acceptable) academic writing does not use personal pronouns; instead it uses only the objective voice.
It is interesting that you assume that students in college get exposed to the contrary view and practice. This, however, depends a great deal on the context, discourse ecology, etc. They would see it more in English studies and other humanities disciplines but far less in science and social science and journalism (outside of magazines and blogs). Many college composition instructors still ban personal pronouns even in the face of evidence that "I" at any rate is used a fair amount in the texts they have students read!
I see students using 'you" and mixing it in with the others. It is an attempt to connect with readers, but oddly universalizes what usually is about their own experience.
I'm not sure where this is going. I think "trauma" is a bit overstated for pronoun ban debunking.
See others in our class who are researching first person pronouns and narrative, objectivity, passive voice. The thread appears to be depersonalization in student academic writing. Formal injunctions certainly add to this and may in some sense help to cause it but it seems to me to run deeper than that. This gets into fascinating territory.
You propose a curricular change in HS. This shifts the problem to preceding levels. If you want to stick with that, you'll need to investigate the discourse in education fields about these issues to get a handle on what's being said and how you can enter and contribute to that conversation.
--AR