I always thought I liked writing essays. And I do. But I've now discovered I only like certain kinds of essays. And of course, the kind of essay that I and the rest of my law class are rushing to finish (and start) this weekend is… a research paper. Although some of the handouts state it is a position paper, which would be preferable, the majority of them call it a research paper.
Now, under certain conditions, I'm okay with research papers. For example, in Data Management class I wrote an essay about downloading music and I had a lot of numbers and statistics. Citing where you get these numbers from is necessary to ensure you aren't just making them up.
But for Law, English, History class? I'm just quoting other people's opinions and interpretations, usually sticking them in randomly after I've finished writing the actual essay just to fill my quota. I don't like quoting other people's ideas, I like writing about my own ideas.
For formal essays, you have to write in third person, and I've always been okay with that. But now I'm realizing that I like to talk about "me" and "my" and what "I" believe. But I can't. I have to find other people who believe the same thing and quote them instead.
Not digging this at all. I want to just write, but I'm being held back because I need to integrate a certain number of quotes if I want to actually do good on this essay.
November 13, 2007 at 12:23 AM
You took the blog straight out of my mouth. We are both too opinionated and just love the word: I. I this, I that. Too much fun.
Plus, we don't need to be objective… we're too interesting (albeit: in our own 'unique' way) to remain objective. ;)