Category Archives: Duke Blog

A blog space for Duke W20 students.

Academic Writing: An Eyeopening Journey

Prior to this Writing 20 class, I had little to no experience with academic writing. Over the course of this semester, however, I have learned a lot about the utility of academic writing and the many functions it serves. In this class, I learned about the functions and tools of this writing style through the lens of documentary film and theater.

Firstly, the most obvious use of academic writing is that it can be used to qualify one’s claims through the use of relevant research and background information. Secondly, academic writing allowed me to explore both the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces I worked on this semester. Initially, my naïveté allowed me to believe everything in both the works as being a thorough retelling of reality. However, as I scoured the many reviews available on the Duke library resources website, I was able to garner insight into the general critical responses of the pieces. This process allowed me to more critically analyze the pieces that I had worked on and to see both their strengths and weaknesses. Documentary theater appeals to emotion and the connection that exists between actors and the audience. For example, in the play My Name is Rachel Corrie, we identify with Corrie and are very disturbed and troubled by her untimely death. While the piece was powerful and moving, however, we should note that Corrie’s journal entries were taken from a young person’s diary who, arguably, did not understand the issue well. By analyzing the shift in medium from theater to film in Gaza Strip, I learned about the editing tools that filmmakers have at their disposal and the amount of conscious decision making that goes into cinema verité film making. The filmmaker makes choices in the editing process which are a reflection of his/her perspective and bias.

Lastly, when I first heard the term “creative reality”, I thought it a witty term for documentary, however, I did not realize its implications. Academic writing allowed me to understand what this term entails; the promise of documentary to provide access to factual documents while creatively mediating the interaction between the audience and the material. We can see, after culling through some of the materials in the databases, the pitfalls that documentarians face and the care and caution we must exercise when viewing a documentary piece, be it theater or film. We must realize   that there will be shortcomings as the documentarian is limited in that he/she must decide which portions of the archive to present. On the other hand, however, we should not get too hung up on these shortcomings but instead should accept that there is no way around them. We must, however, keep these pitfalls in mind and realize that the function of documentary is not to give us a reality or truth but to give us a window to experience another time or place from someone else’s perspective. Academic writing has encouraged me to approach a work more critically, to not accept documentaries at face value, and explore the truth from different angles.

Dax’s Reflection and the Importance of Organization

One of the biggest issues in college is procrastination. I truly did not believe in the seriousness of the matter until I actually got to Duke. With so much going on in college student’s life it can be very difficult to stay on top of work. Also many students have a lot of commitments like sports or clubs that take up a lot of their time. I know it has been difficult to manage my time with lacrosse, but that is why organization is a key tool in getting work done in time and in writing strong and convincing papers. Being able to start a paper early is a huge advantage. It is very important to have a few drafts done early so a writer can proofread and revise his or her work. Also one might see the paper differently as he or she continues to write it, much like a documentary film or theater writer might begin to see the subject matter differently as they do more research and conduct more interviews. Giving myself extra time to write my papers allows me to make mistakes and to still have time to adjust and fix my errors.  Having someone else read my paper is very helpful.  After several drafts I found myself getting too close to my material and in need of a different perspective.  Reading my paper out loud to others during class helps me as well. Being able to hear my own words sometimes makes it easier to see things as opposed to just saying my paper in my head. In additon, having my peers hear my paper and discuss it after gives me the opportunity to improve my writing.  Sometimes being critiqued about your own work can be difficult, but it is a valuable step in the writing process.  Another crucial habit I picked up is taking notes during my discussions with Dr. James. There would always be so much information from our discussions, that is would be impossible to remember it all. Having notes to look on after our discussions allowed me to truly get everything I could out of those useful sessions.

When writing about documentary productions, it was important for me to find out what the writers wanted the audience to take away from the production.   Even though they are essentially telling true stories, I learned the writers of these works do have a lens which they see their subject matter through.  When I was working on Aftermath, it was interesting to find out how the production was made and how these decisions were influenced by the story the writers wanted to tell. It seemed like a play that was only about allowing Iraqi refugees to speak for the first time since the American invasion in 2003. It turned out that the play was created in the eyes of the writers, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. They interviewed 35 Iraqi refugees and only had 6 in the play. This was also the case for my film Voices of Iraq, which was about life in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. It was an hour and half film, even though there was over 400 hours of footage. Documentary theater is the reality made through the creators.

I have learned many new and useful strategies in this course, ones I will continue to use throughout my academic career.

Discoveries

One function of writing I’ve learned in Writing 20: Theatre Verbatim/Verboten, is how to build on simple ideas.  In Nichols chapter, “How Can We Write Effectively about Documentary?” an excellent finished essay begins with a writer simply liking or not liking the work they are writing about.  This was helpful to understand that essays don’t always start with a brilliant idea; a simple opinion can form a brilliant idea.  Starting an essay can be challenging, but Nichols makes clear that you don’t need much as a starting point.  Whatever your starting point may be, you can expand your initial thought using parts that you liked or did not like, or parts that were effective in crossing a particular point.  Once you have a starting point, like a simple opinion, your research can help your opinion become a statement that uses evidence.

From blogging, I learned what types of questions you need to ask yourself when editing your paper.  There are central points the writer should be getting across and there are certain ways of using evidence to better make your point.  Why is the evidence important and was your point clearly explained are just a few questions that will turnout a better paper.  Blogging taught me how important it is to be a critic of your own work.  You have to ask yourself questions to make sure you are explaining your points, relating points to your thesis, and underlining why the points you are making are important.  Before taking this class, I never really edited my papers.  But since I was hearing feedback from my classmates and my Dr. James all the time, I realized the importance of editing one’s own work to become a better writer.

Blogging and the Laramie Project taught me that writing is not something that ends with a final submission.  Writing on paper can expand to discussion and action, which the Laramie Project study guide made clear with its follow up on the subject matter and events of the play.  Documentary theater and film are meant to have a long lasting effect on their cause and writing about it contributes to the ongoing discussion towards change.  For example, years after Laramie Project was produced, hate crime legislation passed.  If people were not continually producing Laramie Project, and writing about it, the hate crime legislation probably would not have been passed in honor of Matthew Shepard.  It is important that, after time has elapsed, pieces of work can be re-evaluated, re-edited, and expanded on in order to move forward.  The thought that my piece of writing was apart of something greater really impacted the way I valued what I was reading and writing about.  Given that my piece of writing is apart of something greater, it is important that, through evidence, I make connections to other works that have also contributed to the impact of the documentary play or film.  This is why having evidence to support your points is so important; your writing must be connected to the greater whole of the subject matter in order to be a part of it.

Alex G’s Reflection Post (uploaded by Dr. James)

Over the course of this semester, I have picked up several important strategies in drafting, revising, and researching writings on documentary theater and film. I have learned to question everything that I read or hear, think about the context of a certain event in the wider scope of world events, and always consider alternative opinions and different ways of coming to an effective argument than my own. Three tools that I have acquired are reading aloud my own writing, learning about the author, playwright, or director’s thoughts behind certain choices he or she made in creating the documentary piece, and finally, having peer-editing sessions with friends and family to have a second or third pair of eyes edit my work.

I found that it helped immensely when I read aloud my work with Dr. James in our individual meetings. It truly does create an entirely different voice when you read your own work aloud rather than speed through it mentally. I discovered many practical, grammatical, and simple spelling errors. Reading my work aloud also helped me tweak my writing style, as I often included too many adjectives in one sentence to describe the same noun. I found that it helped me make my work a lot more concise and to the point.

Another tool of analyzing and writing about documentary theater that I now have at my disposal is researching the author, playwright, or director of a certain work. When analyzing Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s documentary play entitled Aftermath, one of my primary sources was an interview with the artistic director, Jim Nicola. I was able to hear firsthand about his specific vision for the play and how he collaborated with the playwrights in shaping the overall arc of the play, visually and in the text. This not only helped me learn more about the play itself but it also gave me a different mindset when I went back and reread the play, as I looked for certain things that the artistic director focused on in his interview.

In high school I did not really engage in peer editing of any sort. I usually just made one or two drafts of my essays and then basically hoped for the best. With our two major essays during this semester, I had the chance to have multiple peers read over my essays several times. I not only had the comments that my peers wrote down on my paper but also I had the chance to talk with them about the overall direction of my ideas and central themes that I could either keep, add, or take out of the piece. My mom also acted as a peer editor for my first essay over Parent’s Weekend, which was great because it just gave me another person’s perspective on my work. I believe that I truly benefited from the peer editing component of Writing 20 this past semester and I know that I will continue to stay committed to the editing and re-writing process and always use the resources and peers at hand when trying to create a concise and strong argument in my paper.

A Short and Simple Survival Guide to Academic Writing

From middle school to high school to college, I have written many, many papers. Some of my pieces have been completed to the best of my ability—others, not so much. Over time, I’ve discovered that my finest essays are written when I implement certain tools before, during, and after a paper has been completed. Sure, there are all the obvious tips to succeed academically: create a to-do list, take a deep breath, relax, eat, sleep—the usual. However, if you’re searching for a more specific, detailed list of pointers when it comes to writing essays and papers for school, you have come to the right place.

  1. The first piece of advice I have to offer is to use your sources. As a student, you have many sources available to you, especially at Duke. Over the course of the semester, I have realized the extent of help and information that’s accessible to me, and I have tried to take advantage of it. At Duke, we have some of the best libraries on college campuses in the country. Use that. Ask librarians if you need help with a certain project or paper; it’s their job, and they know what they’re doing. The online library database is a wonderful way to access information quickly and efficiently. If you don’t know how to search for sources via the Internet, again, ask a librarian. There’s even an AIM chat on the Duke Library website where you can Instant Message a librarian for help and someone answers immediately. That particular tool really aided me in finding sources for a paper late into the semester, and I was very grateful to have learned about it in a library session during Writing 20 class.
  2. Another tool I’ve found to be extremely valuable is the process of revising, editing, and proofreading. In high school, I often sat down, wrote a paper in a set number of hours, finished the last sentence, and turned the paper in immediately after without the process of revision. When people hear the word “proofreading,” they frequently believe it to simply mean editing for grammar—insert a comma here, Spell-check a word there, that kind of thing. Before coming to college, I was one of those people. But this semester I’ve learned that proofreading is going over your essay, line by line, re-evaluating your main ideas and claims, examining your examples and thinking about any others you could add or change. It’s so tempting to instantly submit a piece you’ve been working on for several hours, but the truth is, that piece could be improved significantly if you just sit down and work with it for some time.
  3. College is the number one place for distractions. Literally. When you live next door to your friends, when there’s always something going on in your dorm, when watching the new episode of Gossip Girl is only a click away, it can be quite difficult to get a head start on a paper you’ve been assigned. However, it is really, really important not to procrastinate. Putting off an important essay will only increase stress and decrease the quality of your assignment. So it’s vital that you find a place where you can work productively and avoid possible distractions. It’s also essential that you summon the willpower and resolve to complete that essay that’s hanging over you. Instead of pushing it all off until the night before it’s due, try setting specific goals for yourself, like writing a page or two each day. Procrastination can be the certain death of some students’ GPAs… Don’t be that casualty.

Reflecting on Academic Writing

Coming into this Writing 20 class, I was not sure what to expect.  I have always been stronger in math and science than English, but I thought that my high school classes did a good job preparing me for college.  I expected a college writing class to polish the skills I already had and help me explain my arguments in a longer-style format.  Now that I have successfully completed the course and can look back on the year, here are the most important things that I have learned in Writing 20.

Start early.  I high school you may have been able to write a paper the night (or morning) before it was due, but that strategy will not serve you well in college.  The best writing is not what you force onto the paper; it is what naturally flows out of your mind to make a logical argument.  If you wait too long to start your writing assignments, you put yourself into a corner that forces you to focus on the number of words you are using instead of the strength and validity of your arguments.  If you begin early, you will not feel stressed about the assignment and will therefore produce higher quality work in all of your classes.  If you fall behind in one class, it will inevitably affect all of the class you are taking.

Rough drafts are rough.  This is an important concept in the revision process.  When you are initially writing a rough draft, don’t worry about details.  Simply get down key concepts that can be expanded upon revision.  You can always change word choice, add supporting evidence, and alter the sentence structure.  The important thing is to get out the ideas.  Once you get your ideas down on paper, others will most likely come to you.

Final revisions are key.  When you believe you have an essay that is strong enough to turn in, run over your paper again.  If you read the essay to yourself, you may find continuity or fluency problems that you did not recognize when you were working on the individual sections.  You have already said you what you needed to say; now you just have to make sure your arguments are presented in a way that is easily accessible for the reader.  Another good way to check over your paper is to read it backwards.  This might seem useless, but it is actually useful in finding grammar errors that you may have normally skipped over.

In this Writing 20 course, we often discussed the idea of a “creative reality” within the context of documentary films and theatre.  In academic writing, you are also making a creative reality.  You are taking the information given to you and reconstructing it using words to express yourself.  I believe that this class has helped reinforce the skills I already had as well as provide me a new way of thinking about both documentaries and academic writing.

Harry’s Declassified Duke Survival Guide: Academic Writing

Before I begin, I’d just like to be one of the first people to say welcome to one of the greatest academic institutions in the world. The greatest years of your life await you and blah, blah, blah. I’m not one to get all corny with you like your parents or your high school principal at graduation, so, to be honest, this school’s tough. Thousands of people much smarter than you could be in the spot you’re in, but they’re not because even though Duke University could accept an entire freshman class of 1,500 valedictorians, we Dukies are not only smart, but also interesting. Apparently, you are, too. So welcome, but tread cautiously, for the road to graduation isn’t a cakewalk.

One key thing all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed freshman need to know is how to be able to be an academic writer. Yes, your high school taught you their way of doing it, but here in Durham, we bring that to a new level, using specific tools and functions.

In my Writing 20 class my freshman year about documentary storytelling and ‘creative realty’, the best thing I did was create a detailed first draft. Teachers don’t make peer review sessions and private meetings just so that you can miss class time; they specifically set aside time in order to help critique your essay. And preparing for these meetings also means coming with questions to utilize all of the time available to you. By creating a draft extensive amounts of material, ideas and questions, the final draft is not only better quality, but easier to write.

But, if I ever did need more than one round of editing, another tool to use is emailing your teacher. In high school teachers have many other responsibilities and aren’t as available as college professors. Now, I’m not saying college professors have no lives, but they are very dedicated to their work and are quick to respond to questions. So, whenever I had to see if a paragraph was coherent or had any other questions, a quick email to my professor cleared up all problems. Along with professors, the Academic Resource Center’s writing studio is something, like many other academic help programs at Duke, readily available and rarely used, but helps immensely when you need a fresh set of eyes on an essay.

Another part of academic writing that also connects with ‘creative reality’ and the ethical concerns of documentary theater is finding, keeping track of, and eventually citing scholarly sources. The Duke Library website has any database you could ask for and will buy a subscription if they don’t. You can literally get any academic piece on the Internet. For free. I think that speaks for itself. Along with finding information, always keep track of where you found it and how you got there, for when it comes time to cite all of your sources (and yes, all of your sources), you will almost definitely have to go back and see some specific detail on what year it was made or when the site was last edited. Like in documentary theater, a good essay is only as thorough as it’s works cited. With these three tools and some more you’ll pick up along the way, I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Take your soon-to-be restless brain and go to school knowing you now have a head start on the kids that are probably much smarter than you. And knowing those kids, you’ll probably need it.

A Realist’s Reflection

My expectations for Writing 20 were not anything outlandish; I just wanted to become a better writer. At the beginning of the semester, I was very apprehensive about writing good papers in college because I did not think I was capable. In high school, I did not feel like my English courses helped me to write in a way that would be appropriate for college. Also, I never had a liking for academic writing, which had made me even more nervous. Now that the semester is almost over, my confidence in my writing skills have boosted. I have realized that academic writing is a process that requires a great deal of effort. However, this effort is always rewarded with the corresponding grade. If I had to pick three key functions for successful academic writing, this would be my list:

1. Preparation: I have yet to encounter a writing project that does not require some time of prepping, even if it may just be thinking about some ideas before writing them down. Research of the topic is a MUST 99.9% of the time, so I plan to spend time dedicating myself to just that task. One technique I like for research is formulating an opinion, and then finding either quotations or facts by researching to support my opinion. Sometimes, the opposite happens, where I find information that refute my ideas. Yet, I can still use the data to show a contrasting view for my argument. Either way, it leads to a better paper.
2. Critique: Though the idea of letting others openly criticize your hard work can be a bit daunting, I have learned that this is a great way to make sure you are getting your point across. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own writing process that we forget to explain or even completely leave out important aspects. It is very important that your audience understands you and your message. Also, peers have been a great resource for critique and suggestions whenever I have had a bad case of writers’ block. The best advice I have ever received for my writing was during a meeting with Dr.James. It was for Essay #1, and I was having extreme difficulty putting everything together and keeping it under the word limit. She suggested that I focus more on what was more important and cut out extraneous details. It was only then that I realize that most of my problems stem from the fact that my writing was unfocused.
3. Revision: No one can write a perfect paper the first time. Revising is necessary step in academic writing to ensure that your paper is clear of errors. Before this course, revisions evoked thoughts of tedious, unnecessary rewriting of papers that I thought were probably well-written just the way they were. Now I cannot even imagine writing a paper without revising it, even if I think I wrote it perfectly. Also, multiple revisions is a must for major papers because with increasing length comes more chances for errors to occur.

I know my writing will only improve from this point forward with the experience that is yet to come in the next four years here at Duke. I would like to take the time to thank our instructor and my fellow classmates for a wonderful and productive semester. I hope that your experience was as advantageous as mines.

From Pre-Writing to Procrastination: A Survival Guide

Hi everyone! Here’s just a few tips on how to survive a writing intensive course. I have learned A LOT this semester about my own strengths and weaknesses in writing, and I just hope that sharing my experiences with you will help to improve your writing skills as well. These are just some of the many things I learned this semester- things I wish someone told me before I began a course on documentaries. I hope it comes in handy!

I. Pre-Writing

Pre-writing is exactly what it sounds like: write anything that comes to mind about the topic given to you. Don’t worry if it doesn’t sound cohesive because it really is a ROUGH ROUGH draft. First, reflect on the topic; in our case, the central idea always dealt with an aspect of the documentary genre. I personally was extremely hesitant to begin writing because documentaries were so foreign to me. Of course, I knew what they were, but their functions? Their organization? Sources? Um what? I felt so overwhelmed and confused about how to begin many of my essays and blogs, but pre-writing really helped me organize my thoughts. Initially, just think broadly about whatever prompt is presented to you and then try to center in on a specific argument (potentially a thesis statement) that you can expand. Try to make this specific argument descriptive but succinct. I used bullet points whenever I began to pre-write, but outlines or paragraphs work just as well. I know pre-writing just sounds like extra work but it really does help you in the long run. Now, I truly believe that it is an indispensable part of the writing process, especially when you have NO idea where to start.

II. The Finished Product

So after 426,253 drafts, you will hopefully have a finished product. While putting the final touches on your work, make sure you aren’t frequently repeating yourself (my greatest downfall). In the words of John Meyer, “say what you mean to say” and be done. In my writing, I sometimes use the same exact phrases without even knowing it. That’s why revising and editing are so important. Make sure everything is formatted correctly. Are all plays and films in italics? How’s your Works Cited page looking? Did you follow all of your professor’s guidelines?. Make a concrete checklist for yourself so you won’t be banging your head against the wall for not picking up “dummy points”. Lastly, read your finished product out loud so that you can catch any last minute mistakes. Make sure your writing doesn’t sound robotic and too rehearsed. It should flow and reflect your specific style of writing as well as be organized in a comprehensible order.

III. A Few Words About Procrastinating

My last plea to you is that you DO NOT procrastinate, especially when you are writing about a topic like documentaries. There are so many ways to interpret documentaries, whether they are plays or films; you can’t expect to produce quality work if you wait until the last minute to watch the works or write about them. In other words, don’t expect to get an A if you only put in a C- effort. If you want to succeed in a course like Theatre Verbatim/Verboten, then you have to be ahead of the game at all times. I had so many blog posts, UNC Blog comments, Duke Blog comments, and essays of which to keep track that it seemed, at times, overwhelming, but managing my time was the only way I could finish everything in a timely matter. Let me tell you now, Facebook is the devil. It was my main reason for procrastinating, but once I deactivated it, I had SO much more time to actually do my homework and sleep (usually I would have to choose between one or the other). In other words, don’t let your surroundings be your downfall in a writing course. Formulating any type of paper takes time and cannot be rushed, unless you want a bad grade. Discipline yourself. Do a little bit each night so you won’t be bombarded with work over the weekend.

I hope this small survival guide will be of some help to you in the future!

A Freshman’s Survival Guide to Collegiate Writing

Before beginning my first semester of college, I believed that writing was one of my strengths. As editor-in-chief of my newspaper for two years, I came into Duke confident in my writing and editing skills. This past semester has made me come to the (sad) realization that my writing is still in its elementary stages. However, this realization does not make me cringe at the thought of writing a college paper because I am now equipped with three rules necessary to write at the collegiate level.

  1. Less really is more. If I were asked to find a comparison between William Faulkner’s writing style and my own, it would be that we both really know how to drag sentences on and on (and on).  Wordiness is something with which I struggle. This problem of mine can really affect the clarity of my argument, and, if there’s a word limit on an essay, can prevent me from expanding on an important point in my argument. An integral factor that affects the clarity of a written argument is its succinctness. An argument’s conciseness is key because it also affects the flow and style of the writing.  A good rule of thumb is Ockham’s razor: whatever can be said in fewer words will ultimately be a better argument.
  2. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research. Even if you think you have formulated the most original idea, chances are someone has thought of it before and has articulated the idea better than you ever will. This is why research is so integral to the writing process—it provides evidence for your reasoning and acts as a jumping-off point for your own analyses. Although I always researched my essays in high school, I never realized the depth and variety of research that must go into created a well-supported argument.  Credibility, variety, and strong analysis are all major factors that contribute to good resource material. The more evidence attained, the better the essay will be.
  3. Editing is a writer’s best, best friend. I used to think editing was an inefficient process; I would just try to write an essay that was good enough to stand on its own as a final product. I have learned this semester that no matter how hard you work, how many times you revise, there is always room for improvement. The editing process is vital to creating a well-formulated essay. Not only is it important to reread and revise your own work, but it is necessary to receive feedback from outside opinions. Peer editors can monumentally improve your essays by pointing out issues in flow, logic, or clarity.

It is said that a pen is mightier than a sword. This can be true.  Good argumentative writing is dependent on substantial evidence and logic and clarity in expression.  If these three components can be carried out in an essay, then one has created sound and well-formulated essay. Writing can be an excellent tool for argumentation only if it is carried out the right way.