Sommers, Nancy. “Between the Drafts.” Eds. Corbett, Myers, and Tate. 279-285.
The journal I wrote for 511:
As I read this article, I began to think back on the conversations I’ve had with peers when I’ve asked, “Oh, have you read [insert name of book or author here],“ and how this is sometimes (thought not always) a case of name-dropping, much like Sommers drops Foucault’s name. Sommers writes personally about trying to find her voice, one that is “enabled“ by other voices, but not “subordinated to theirs“ (284). What a wonderful way to look at this.
I’ve been reading a variety of articles and parts of books about voice, trying to find what others say because, well, I have no idea what I have to say for this research paper that I’m working on. I chose voice largely because I felt I knew very little about it and very little about how to teach about it. How does a teacher express to a student that they need to sound both like themselves and yet academic enough to write for college? Where is that line, and how do you get a student who is wildly in one direction find the medium.
Sommers has hit the nail on the head, for me. She discusses avoiding the either/or arguments and “suspend[ing] myself between either and or,“ so that she can see “ambiguity, uncertainty, and discontinuity, moments when the seams of life just don’t want to hold….My life is full of uncertainty; negotiating that uncertainty day to day gives me authority“ (284). Really, when students are writing, as I think it was Bartholomae argued, they are looking for authority, and that’s what screwing up their writing, when they write in this faux-academic style that doesn’t resonate with them. I like how Sommers has gotten her voice from this ambiguity, and I think that I too have my best writing when I am struggling through some uncertainty. When I find myself too certain about a topic, I become dogmatic, preachy. One of my favorite essays I’ve ever written came from the uncertainty of leaving Ames, Iowa. I had no authorities to defer to; I dangled myself in this uncertainty, describing what it was like to both be certain I was ready to go to Oregon for graduate school and uncertain that I wanted to leave Ames and leave teaching.
I don’t want my students to write like “Everystudent [writing] to an audience they think of as Everyteacher“ (284). I want my students to learn to dangle themselves between either and or on issues, in their lives. I want my students to find their authority in themselves, while dangling in ambiguity, instead of in stilted prose that attempts academic writing, or in overly quoting and citing other authorities. Of course, they are still writing to a teacher who often has more authority on a subject, as Bartholomae notes, but they should be writing from a place where they have more authority: themselves. College professors worry about this and ask, “What if students write themselves into their physics paper or their sociology paper?“ I say, good. Not that I think students should be writing their life stories into a physics paper, or discussing how gravity has affected their life when the paper should be fulling “academic“ and science oriented. Instead, I propose that students write themselves into papers by using their authority over the ambiguity of issues and the uncertainty they feel. Researchers struggle through issues, and I think that perhaps when that researcher’s struggle shows through, that the paper is best. Who wants to read hard-lined black and white arguments? If we’re seriously trying to get students to think critically and create a world of complexities and continuums instead of binary relationships, then perhaps it’s best to dip ourselves in uncertainty, to find our authority in this messy goo.
I know this sounds vague and perhaps even froo-froo (how is that spelled?), but it feels right, and I think Sommers is one to something. I think I am on to something.
