Tutoring for academic writing: how to avoid postmodernistic hand-wringing

In writing centers across the country, inevitably the question comes up about whether the tutor has a right to tell the students what kind of writing is “right” in school. What about these minority cultures that have their own way of writing and expressing themselves with non-standard English and idiom? What right does the tutor have to squelch the students’ authentic voice?

For instance, if I was writing this for an academic paper, I might find I was expected to write something like the following:

Postmodernist theorists on writing tutoring have turned their attention to the cultural discourses that are marginalized in academic writing, and they advocate for a tutoring method in which the tutor acknowledges the student’s cultural discourse and dialogues with them about the tension between their cultural identity and they requirements of discoursing academically.

Is that crazy, or what? Why would anyone with a soul feel drawn to change their style of expression to fit something as lifeless as that? They’re not. Students have to be dragged kicking and screaming toward academic-style writing. The ones who realize what they are being asked to do frequently over-compensate by pulling out all the big words they can think of and thoroughly muddying up their writing in order to get the good grades.

But back to the question. What right do writing tutors have to tell students to change their writing style for academia? It took me a long time to answer this question for myself. Eventually I learned that academic writing is NOT the only alternate writing style besides one’s personal style. There are many styles. (It just seems like academic is the only style because that may be the only other style a student has been asked to write in.) But the more styles the writer learns about, the more it becomes obvious the writer only has to learn another set of skills in addition to the ones they have already. Just because you learn to write academically doesn’t mean that the other writing skills you consider more authentically “you” are destroyed. Learning different styles of writing (like business writing, creative writing, history writing, engineering writing, etc.) is about accumulating skills, not about blotting out your unique you-ness. Writing tutors help students craft writing that will succeed in academia.

Then we have to deal with the next question. How did academic writing develop into something that seems so dull and boring? (Sorry, you academics, but your prose IS boring. )

Academic writing (discourse) has become what it is because it meets a need and does it very well. It is built on the theory that time is scarce. Teachers know this as they look at a pile of student essays that they have to grade. For people who have only so much time they can spend reading and responding to writing, communication that is direct, logical, and dense with thought is highly valued. Academics want to know right away why they should be reading a paper; thus the thesis comes at the beginning. Once academics know why they are reading the paper, they want the reasons supporting that thesis presented in an orderly manner so they can easily pick them out. The academic doesn’t have the time to think of opposing arguments, so he wants them presented and rebutted in the paper. Then, just to make sure he hasn’t lost the point of the paper, he wants to be reminded in the end what it all adds up to, thus the thesis is repeated at the end.

The uninitiated writers accuse academic discourse of excessive use of jargon and uninteresting style. They say that academics make it hard for ordinary people to read. However, the fact is that academic writing also has to advance the field, and this may require inventing terms where none existed before. Naturally, this means that if a term is invented, it must be clearly defined so that it is not mistaken to mean something else. The more precise a term is, the more specialized it tends to become, and the greater the tendency for the uninitiated to misunderstand. Precision of meaning becomes even more necessary if a word is used in several different disciplines and means different things in each one. Academics strive for precision of language, so their language uses jargon.

When academics wish to advance their field, they realize that they “stand on the shoulders of giants” and it may not be clear to their readers which giants they are standing on. Therefore, they take care to communicate the context that their study can best be understood through. (Sometimes it becomes difficult to isolate the context from the thesis, however.) Academics seek to solve problems, so they have to communicate precisely what that problem is and how large it is. Academics realize that if they use scientific study to make advances, they have to make it possible for others to duplicate their experiments. Thus, they have to share their methods, calculations, and conclusions.

There is a reason that academic discourse developed. It serves a need in the university. If it were not useful, some other form of discourse would be quickly adopted.

If a writing tutor can communicate this to the student, the student will be more likely to understand the need to master academic discourse. Further, since the business world likewise values time, discourse in the business world is similarly direct.

Students often feel that their voice is being silenced by academic discourse. They fear that academic style will take over their communication, Borg-like, and that once assimilated, they will have great difficulty escaping. The tutor can comfort the student by emphasizing that every style of writing mastered adds to the student’s capability of communicating effectively and appropriately. If the student wishes to develop their personal voice, they can be encouraged to take creative writing classes and discover new ways of stretching their style.

Above all, the writing tutors need not become embroiled in postmodernistic hand-wringing about “privileged discourse” and “power structures.” They are there to help students master the writing style of their chosen discipline.