why I wrote st that way, what the problems were and how {chose solutions. Leant do that with anyone lee's ‘work, Since I have been producing sciologcal writing {or over thirty years, many students snd young profes: sionals have read some of it, and roeders f this book in ‘manuscript have said that itis useful to know that thos Discos troubled ond confused me in te eam ay’ thoit ‘work bothers them. For that reason, Ihave devoted a Chapter to my own experiences as a writer. (Chapter 1 originally appeared, ina slighty diforent form, in The Sociological Quarterly, 24 (Autumn 1989) 575-88, and ie reprinted hore with the permission of the Midwest Sorilegicl Sociaty "thank al the people who helped me, espacally (in audition to the poople in the classes I have taught) Kathryn Pyne Addelson, James Bennett, James Clark, Dan Dixon, Blanche Goer, Robert A. Gundlach, Chis- taper Joncks, Michael Joyce, Shela Levino, Leo Lit wak, Michal McCall, Donald McCloskey, Robert K ‘Merton, Harvey Molotch, Arline Meyer Michael Schud- ‘sn, Giibera Velho, Jobn Walton, and Joseph M.Wil- Hiams. 1am especially grateful to Rosanna Hertz for writing the letter that prompted the chapter “Persona tnd Authority” and for letting me quote from it 50 fextensively. A letter Pamela Richards wrote to me ‘bout risk was so complete at stood that ¥ asked hor If she would let it appoar in this volume under her ‘name. 'm glad she agreed. couldn have said ithelfs0 wall Freshman Enélish for Graduate Students A Memoir and Two Theories‘eanman Bnghieh for Graguae Stunts 2 socjlogists had with writing listed the course. “The turnout forthe fist lass surprised me, Not only Aid ten of tvelve graduate students sign up. the class tlso contained a couple of post Ph.D. rsanrchers and fven a few of my younger faculty colloegues, and that patter of enrollment continued in succeeding years ‘Thels worrles and troubles with writing overshadoveed the fear of embarassing themalves by going back to school ‘My “chutgpeh” wont beyond teaching & course ‘whose subject | was no master of. didnt even prepare forthe clas, because (being 2 sociologist, nota teacher of composition) Thad no ides how to teech it. So 1 twalked in the fist day not knowing shat would do. “After a fav fumbling preliminary remarks, hada las. Thad been reading the Paris Review Interviews with ‘ites for years and had alway had a slightly prurient interost in what the Interviewed authors shamelessly revealed about their veiling heblts So I turned to @ former graduate student and old frend sitting on my left and seid, "Louise, how do you waite?” I explained that 1 was not fnterested in any fancy talk about ‘scholarly preparations but, rather, ia the nitty-gritty otal, whether she typed or wrote im longhand, used fany special kind of paper or worked at any spocal time fof day. 1 didnt know what she would say. The hunch paid off She gave, moro oF less unset consciously, a lengthy sccount of an elaborate routine ‘which had to be done just so. Although sho was not bbatrassed by vnhat she doscribed, others squirmed a litle as she explained that she could only write on sollow, rule, legl-siz pads usinga gren flttip pen, that she had to clean the house frst (tat turned out to bi common preliminary for women but not for men, ‘who were more likely to sharpen twenty pencils), that ‘he could only write between fuch end such hours,and The I wat on to something and went onto the next victim, A Title tore reluctantly, he described. his Proshman Rogie for Graduate Scents 3 csqually peculiar habits. Th third one sald he was sorry bputhe'd keto pass his turn. dida'alow that. Head ‘good reason, at turned out. "They all di, By then thoy could see thet what people were describing was something quite shameful, nothing you wanted t talk boat in oat of vento pape: wos relates, making everyono tll all and not sparing melt, "This exoreise creatod great tension, ut also a lot of joking, enormous interest, end eventually surprising relaxation, [polnted out that they all were relieved, and ‘ought to be, because, while their worst fears vero ‘rus—thoy really were crazj—they were no crazier than anyone else, It woe a common disease, just at people fel roleved to discover that some frightening physical symptoms they've boon hiding are just some ‘thing that Is "going around,” Knowing tat others had ‘crazy writing habits should have ben, and clerly was, ' good thing Tivent on with my laerpetation. From one polat of view, my fallow participants were describing neu totic symptoms. Viewed sociologically, however those symptoms were magical rituals. According to Malinow ski (1048, 25-3), people perform such rituals to init fence the result of some process over which they think they have-no rational means of control. He described the phonomenon as he observed tamsong the Trobrind Islendors Thus in eno bling ara knoe of tera of technology, and of certain principes tf stability and bydrodynemies, fonction incom. pany and in close sscition with magi, each yt Uncontarnaed bythe eto "or example, they wnderstand postcty well that the wider the spam a the outage he geater the stability yet the smaller the resistance gaint strain, They can clearly explain why they Rave to sve this span a certain traditional width, mos ‘sured in fractions of the length of the dugoutProshman Bogle for Graduate Stacenta 4 ‘Thy can alo oxplain, in rudimentary but mechanical terms, how they have to beh ‘Nudden gale, wity the uteager must always be on ‘he weather side, why the one type of canoe can land the other canot beat. Thoy havo, infact 2 ‘whole system of principles of sailing, embodied Inne complex and rich teinology, raditionally handed on and obeyed ab sationally and const tently a s modern science by modern sala. But evan ‘ith all their systematic Knowledge methodically applied they are sll at tha erey of powerRul-and incalculable tides, sudden gales uring the monsoon season and unknown, ‘And here comes in thelr megle, perormad over the canoe during Its construction, cared out st the boginaing and in the coursa ‘ef expeditions land resorted fon moments of real danger. (30-31) Just like the Trobriand sailors, sociologists who couldn't handle the dangers of waiting in rational way used magical chasms, that dispelled anxiety, though without relly affecting the result. ‘So I asked the class: What are you so afraid of not boing abe to contel rationally that you have to use all these megical spells and rituals? 'm no Freudian, but id think they would resist answorlng the question. ‘They didn’t. On the contrary, they spoke easly and at length, They feared, to summarize the long discussion that followed, two things, They were sftald that they would not be able to organize their thoughts, that Yrting would be a big, confusing chaos that would {rive them mad. They spoke foolingly about a second fear, that hat they wrote would be “wrong” and that {anspecifod) people would leugh at them, That seemed to account for more ofthe rtual-A second person who wrote on legal-sizad, yellow, ruled tablets always started on the second pago. Why? Well, she said, if ‘anyone walked by, you could pull down th top sheet land cover what you had boan writing so the passerby couldnt se, ‘rochman Enlsh for Grasuate Seadense 5 Many of the stuals ensured thet whet was writen could not be taken for 4 “ished” produc, so no one ‘ould laugh att. The excuse was bull in, think tht's ‘why even waters who type well often use such time wasting metheds as longhend. Anything written In Tonghand is clearly not yet done and so cannot be criticizod as though it wore. You can keep people from taking your writing as serious expression of your abilities ven more surely, however, by not waiting at All. No one can read wh has never been put on pape® ‘Something important had happened i that class. As {also pointed out to thom that et day, they had all told something quite shameful about themselves, and tno one had died (Here what had happened resembled ‘what might be called the “new California therapies,” ‘sich rely on people revealing tele psyches or bodies In public and discavering tht the revelation, similarly, doesnot Kil) 1 surprised me that people in this clase, many of whom knew each other quite well, knew nothing at all sbout each other's work habits and, in fact, had hardly ever soon each other's writing. t de clded todo something sbout that Thad originally told prospective class members that the class would emphasize, insted of writing, copy cating and rewaiting. Thorelore T made tho price of Sdmission to the class an already writen paper on which thoy would now practice rewriting Belore tack Ting these papers, however, I decided to shovr them what itmeant to rewrite and edit. A collague lent me 2 rough second draft of « paper she was working on. I distributed her three or four page "methods section” at the boginning of the second class, and we spent three hour rewriting it ‘Sociologists habitually use twenty words where two will do, and wo spent mort ofthat aftemoon cutting fxcess words. Tused stick {had often used In private lessons. With my pencil poised over a word ar claus, asked, "Doss this need to be hero? I not I'm aking ct" Finsisted that we must no, In making eny change,‘rechman Mngush for Graduate Students ° lose the slightest nuance ofthe author's thought. (nad in mind here the rules C, Wright Mills followed in his wellknoven “translation” of passages from Talcott Par- ‘sons [Mills 1950, 27-31) If no one defended the word ‘or phase I took it out I changod passive to active ‘consiructions, combined sentonces, took long. sen- tences apart—all the things these students had once leamed to do in freshman composition. At the ond of three hows, we had reduced four pagos to threo ‘quarters of « page without losing any nuance of eseen- {al deta, ‘Wo worked on ono long sentence—which consid- «ed the posible implications of what the paper had s0 far said~for quite a while, removing words and phrases unt it wat a quarter as long est had been. 1 Finally suggested (miachiovously, but laey weren't ure ofthat) that we cut the whole thing and just say, "So what?” Someone finally broke the stunned silence: "You could get away with that, but we couldn’. ” So we talked about tone, concluding that I couldn't gt away with i elther, unis Thad properly prepazed for that sort of one, and it was appropriate tothe occasion. ‘The students felt very somy for my celleague who hhad donated the pagos wo did this surgery on, They thought she had beon humiliated, that it was lucky she Ihadn't been thre to die of shat. In empathizing lke that, they reed on their own unprofessional feelings, not realizing that people who veil professionally, and ‘wota a lot, routinely rowete as we Just had, T wanted ‘hom to eliove that his was not unusual and that they should expect to rewrito alt, so told them (truthfully) ‘hat [habitually rewrote manuscripts eight to ten times before publication (although aot before giving them to ray feiends to read). Since, as TI explain la ‘hotght thet “good waiters” (people lik thet sot everything right the first ime, tat shocked them, "This exorcio had soverl results, The students were exhausted, never having spent s0 much time on or Tooked so closely atone piece of waiting, never having ‘reshman Engush for Graaute Stadenta , Imagined that anyone could spend so much time on such a jb. Thay had Seen and experimented with a umber of standard editorial devices. But the most Important result came a the end ofthe aftnoon when, ‘extiaustedly, one student—that wonderful student who ‘says what others aro thinking but know bate than ay—sald, "Goo, Howie, when you say it this way, it looks liko somathing anybody could say." You bat ‘We talked about that Was it what you sai that wos sociological, or wat it tho way you sald It? Mind you, ‘we had not replaced any technical sociological lan- ‘guage. That had not been the problem {i almost never Is). We had replaced redundancies, “fancy writing,” pompous phrases (for instance, my personal bee no “the way'in which," for which a plain “how” can tually be substituted without losing anything but pretentiousness|—anything that could be simplified Without damage to the thought. We decided that au thoes tied to give substance and weight to what thes] wrote by sounding ecadamic, even at the exponse of {hole real meaning. ‘We discovored somo othor things that interminable afternoon. Some of those Tong, redundant expressions ‘couldnt be replaced because thay had no underlying ‘sande to replace. They were placeholders, marking Spot whore the author should ‘rave sald. something plainer but had at the moment nothing plain to sy. "Those spots nevertholes had tobe filled becauso oth- exwise the author would only have half @ sentence Writers did not use these meaningless phrases ond sentences randomly or slmply because they had bad ‘writing habits, Certain situations evoked meaningless placsholders. ‘Writers routinely use mosningless expressions to cover up two kinds of problems. Bath kinds af prob- lems reflect erious dilemmas of sociological thoory. (One problem has to do with agency: who did the things that your sentence alleges wore done? Sociologists ‘often prefer Tocutions that leave the answer to that‘Froahuzan Haglish for Gradua Sudenta ® question unclear, largely because many of thelr Uhoo- fates don't tell tham who is doing whet. Tn many cilia theo thngs ust bappen riot any Sh dong thm ite fard to finde Bet ora sentence Shen “rer sci free ot“noxorable soil proc {sso aut work. Avoiding saying who dd pro nce ro chiseeit it oF oes tion {io ablirae of pani constctome tad aber if yo say, fr example that “devin were lable you dont have to say who Ibo them. That is tno ener, ot as bed writing A arp of the ibeling tory of daviance (eine In Becker 163) s pres hat someone abel th person dae in, someone ith the power odo tan go masons ior wanting tI you leave those actors ost you Instat th toy, oth lator an apne. ett Common locaton, Socsogists commit star there SEsors en tey tytn sent doa ho hat trihatcultor makes people do thing and sociologists do wit tat vay ll te Sings iabilty or uwilingnos to make ava sateen snarl oad to ed ting. Dei Tan's Beery” Concoring ‘Human’ Undrsonding neds us all docous scl claiming wo demoutts use! conection, and though fo soeelogits seas ‘Sptcl en uo, moat understand that dspte the ‘torts john Stunt Mil, he Vienna Clee andl the fot they run solos scholarly aks when thy aloe that A cases B. Socilogsts have many ways of descibinghow elements covery, mos of hem vacous txprtsions hinting whet we wos ike, bot don Gite tosay, Sines wo a fd ona Unt AcaeeB tro sy, “hore tontoncy for them to coeey” ot "Thy aeer to be ebocater.” The esos fo doing ths bring us back othe tals of wating: Wo write thal way because we fear tha therewith sn avis eer wo do anything slo andlngh ata Baer toy something nnocious Frechman nish for Graduate Stsenta ° but safe than something bold you might not beable to defend against criticism. Mind you, it would not be ‘objectionable say, "A varies with B,”if that was what you really wanted to sey, and its certatnly ressonable | Tsay, "Tthink A causes Band my data support that by showing that they covary." But many’ people use suck ‘expressions to hint at stronger asertions they ust don’ ‘want to tako tho rap for. They want to discover causes bbocause causes are sclentifeally intresting, but dont want the philosophical responsibilty very teacher of English composition and every guide to writing criticizss passive constructions, ab- Stract nouns, and most ofthe other felts { mentioned, {dtd not invent these standards, In fac, [learned them ‘in composition classes myself. Although the standards are thus indopendent of any particular school of thought, 1 boliove that my preference for clarity and directness also has roate in the symbolic interactionist, tradition of sociology, which focuses on rel actors in real situations. My Brezilian colleague Gilberto Velho Insists that these are ethnocentric standard, strongly favored in the Anglo-American tradition of plain speaking, but having no more warrant than the more flowery, indirect style of some European traditions. 1 ‘think that’s wrong, since some of the best seltrs in ‘other languages also uso a direct style Simla, Michael Schudson asked me, not unre sonably, how someane ought to writ wha believes that structures—capialst relations of production, for in stance-—cavse social phenomena, Should such a theo "st use passive constructions to indicate the passivity of the human actors involved? That question requires ‘wo answers. The simpler is that fw serious theories of socity leave no room for human agency. More impor- tantly, passive constrictions even hide the agency attributed to eystoms and structures. Suppose a system oss tho labeling of deviants. Saying “deviants are labeled” covers that up to,resnman English for Graduate Srudents 10 Much of what we removed from my colleague's oper in clas consisted of what T named, for class purposes (with Wayne Booth's enticism of academic NGreckcfed, polysyllaic bullshit” (Booth 1970, 277) as logimating precedent), “bullshit qualifications.” vague phrates expressing 2 general readiness to aban “lon the poin being made if anyone cbjects: "A tends to berelated to B,” "A might possbly tend to bo olated to Blunder some conditions,” and similar cowardly qual- ‘ors, A real qualification says that Ai related ta.B xcept ain. epeciied circumstanons [always ‘Sop for groceries the Safeway unless i's closed; the { = between income and education Is Stronger if you age white than if you are black. But the students, ike ather sociologists, habitually used less Specific qualfcations, They wanted to sty that the relationship existed, but knew that someone would, Sooner of later, find an exception. The nonspecific, tual qualifier gave thom an all-purpose loophole. If attacked, they could say they never said It was always frue. Bullshit qualifestions, making your statements ftzzy, ignote the philosophical and methodological tradition which holds tht making peneralizations ‘Strong. universal form identiies nogative evidence ‘which Game Used to improve them, “As asked people in the class about why they wrote the way thoy dy [learned that they had picked up ‘nany of thoi habits i high school and solidified thom in college. What they had loerned to write wore term papers (See Shaughnessys[1977, 88-6) discussion of fhe conditions of undergraduate writing). You write 2 term paper by doing whatever reading or research is required throughout the term and working out tho paper in your heed as you go along. But you write only ‘ne daft, perhaps ater making an outline, usually the night before handing it in. Like a Japanese brush painting you do and either i's OK or isn't Clog tudonts have no time for rewaiting. since they often have soveral papers dus a the same time. The method Proshman English for Graduate Stadente a works for undergraduates, Some become very adept at the format and tur out creditable, highly polished papers, working on thom in their heads at they walk found cempus, putting the words on peper as the tssignments come due, Teachers know all this. If they trent aware of the mechanics, they knavr the typical results and don't expect papers more coherent or highly polished than such e method can produce Students who habitually work tht way understand bly worry about the drt they produce. They know it {ould be beter but ie nat going to be Whatover they put down ist As long as thst documant is kpt confden- tial, in the conventionally private teacher und: sraduate relationship, It won't ambarase the author too much ‘Bu the sola organzation of writing and reputation changes in graduate school, Teachers talk about your papers, for good or bed, to thle collegues and to other tudonis. With luck, the papers grove into qualifying papers or dissertations read by severl faculty mem bet, Graduate students also write longer papers than uundergradsstes do, Students expert at the oxeshot term paper cannot hold a longer paper in their heads so asly. That's when they start losing thelr ebilty to ‘weite, They cannot produce a one-dait paper and be confident tht it will not provoke ridicile and exit tim. So they don't write Tid el the students al thie ding the est class sessions, though Ieventuslly di Instoad, gave assign: ionts that would got them to give up the one-draft method of producing papers. They might thon find altemate routines that wore loss painful and equally ‘floctive fn earring academic rewards. A fow adventur ‘ous stents in each ofthe eovoral clases have taught have trusted me enough to go along wit these exper rmonts. My roputation for not boing er weakened the traditional stident fear of professors, and those who Tas taken other elasss with me tasted my’ eccentric‘rashanan Bogioh for Gratuate Stasente 1 itis, Teachers who lack that advantage might have ‘more trouble slag some ofthese ticks 1 told students that lt didn’t make much difference what they wrote in a first draft because they could always change I Since what they put on a piece of paper was not nsceesrily Rial, they needn't worry so uch abost what they wot. The only version that fatteed ras the last one. They had gation a bint of how things could be changed and I promised to show them more ‘Our classroom ating and my intonpretation of it sobered the students, [asked them to bring the papers [Thad required at a preroqulsite for admission to the ‘lass (but had not yet collected) to the next session. {Some stents balked at this. The socond year taught the course, ane aaid she wasn't going to bring a paper bocauce she didn't have one. got angry: "Anyone who has boon golng to achool a Tong as You heve has plenty of papers. ring one.” Then th veal reason came out: ‘dont have one thats good enough”) After collecting the papers and shufing them thoroughly, I passed ‘hont out aga, making sure that no one got his oF hor ‘own, Laskod thom to eit the papers thoreughly. The hhoxt week they returned them to thelr authars. Sti ‘dents rat soberly, looking to see what had been done. Plenty, was the answer, There as red ink everywhere. asked thom how they liked editing someone paper, They spoke at length, angrily. They hed Surprised by how much wodk there was to do, at how many silly mistakes poople made. After an hour of ‘omplaiing, {asked them how they liked having their papers edited, Agni thoy spoke angrily, but this time they complained thatthe person who road their paper lacked compassion, couldn't see what they had mount, hed changed thelr text to say things they badn' tended at al. The smarter ones soon realized that thoy were talking about themes, and the group fll silent fethat sank in, {aid it was aleaon they ought to think About, and that nov they could see that thoy had to write co that well-meaning editore—and they had to ‘assume thle collegues wore well-meaning—could not ‘mistake their meaning. Editors and colleagues would fften rewrite their work, [told them, and they had Detter got used oI and not lot their eotings be hurt by such experiancos, They should try instead to write 0 Clearly that no one could misunderstand and make ‘changes thoy didn't lke Then I sad that they could really start by waiting almost anything, any Kind of @ rough drat, no matter hhow crude or confused, and snake something good out ft To prove, Thad to got somoone to produce sist, ‘uncensored deft, some ideas writin with Lite care and no corrections explained that sucha draft would help them find out what they might have to sey. (This ‘was one ofthe places orhore | invented what Idd not now sas likewise boing. developed by people in composition theory. Linda Floveer [1979, 36) for ln- stance, descebos and analyzes the same procodure as Writer-Based proso,” which “allows the wte fee dom to generato a breadth of information and a vrioty of altemative relationships belore locking hissel! ot herself into @ premature formulation") T took some work to find someone who would try such a risky prooess. I distbuted copies ofthe resulting document tothe class, ‘The person who contibuted the place made some nervous solf-deprecating jokes about puting hersel in Jeopardy by allowing people to se it. To her surpriso, what she had veiten amazed her classmates. ‘They ould sae that it was mlxed-up and writin badiy, bot thay could also soe, end sald, that she had some really Interesting ideas there that could be developed. They also openly admired her courage (Other brave students have hal the same effect on their peers in succeeding years) This draft showed the author approsching her sub- fect circuitous (ike the writers described in Flower and Hayes 198%), not gure of what sho wantod to say,| ‘rechman Rnglsh for Graduate Stents a saying the ame thing in several diffrent ways. Com- paring ho versions mde It easy to soothe Idea she had been etcling around and to formulate it more con- cisely. We found three ar four ideas to work with in that ‘way and could soo, or senso, some comnoctions betsreen thom. We agroed thatthe way to work with such a draft ‘was to take notes oni, se what contained, and then ‘make an outline for nother drat, Why bother avoiding redundancy orany of the other faults we had worked so since it would be those newly loaned skis, Inter? Worrying about those foults might love you down, keep you fom saying something in one of the ‘ways that would give you the clue you needed, Beter to tat afterward, rather than as you wont. The students began to soe that writing need not be a one shot, al-or-nothing venture, Tt could have stages, each with its own criteia of excellancs (as Flower and others ‘ould have told them, but perhaps it was batter for thom to discover iin their ay expariance). An inss- tence on clarity and polish appropriate to a late versian ‘was entiely imapproppriateto euler one meaat to get the Ideas on paper. In coming to these conclusions they replicated somo of Flowers vesults and bogan to ‘understand that worrying about rules of writing too ary in the process could keep thom from saying what thay’ ctuely had to ay a point made inthe language ‘of cognitive psychology in Rose 1083) T don't want to exaggerate, My students did not Uirow aveay their crutches and start to dance. But they saw that there were ways out of thoi troubles, wich ‘was all I hed hoped for. Knowing what was possible, thay could ty it. Just Knowing wasn’ enough, of ‘course. They had to uso these devices, make them part ‘oftheir writing routine, perhaps ropacing somo of the magical oloments we had discussed ‘We did numberof other things in the sominas, We Cheapo Guides to Hn Ealtingh snd Publishing Already Published ‘On Writing, Bditing, and Publishing Essays Explicative and Hortatory Second Baition Jeoques Barzun ‘The Craft of Translation Baited by John Bigusnet and Rainer Schulte Chicago Guide to Preparing Electronic Manuscripts For Authors and Publishers Prepared by the Staff ofthe University of Chleago Press Getting into Print The Decsion-Meking Process Walter W. Powell, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Thesos, and Dissertations Fifth Edition Kate Turabian, revised end enlarged by Bonnie Birtwistle Hoalgsblum ‘ales of the Field (On Writing Ethnography John Van Maanen Style Toward Clarity and Grace Joseph M. Williaine A Handbook of Biological Ilustration Second Eaition Frances W. Zweifel Writing for Social Scientists How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article Howard 8. Becker ‘with a chapter by Pamela Richards ‘The University of Chicago Press Chioago and London,