Grammar Police: Why is it “wrong” to use “I” in academic writing?

It’s often believed that it’s wrong to use “I” in academic writing, and that is one of the reasons why academic writing gets a bad name.

The problem with “I” is it’s like a symptom of a worse problem. It isn’t the “I” that’s the problem, it’s what caused it. Imagine you keep finding black mold in your bathroom. You can clean it off and wait for it to grow again or you could think “wait a minute, maybe I should find out what’s causing this just in case something else is going on.”

It’s not always wrong to use “I”

Using I in itself is not “bad” if it’s justified. It’s all a matter of style. If you are writing a polemical piece (a personal argument) then you really should be using I to ensure that people don’t think you’re making claims for the rest of the world.

E.g. “I think all designers should wear black turtlenecks and grow goatee beards” is a better way of making a personal argument than “all designers should wear black turtlenecks and grow goatee beards”. What is “unacademic” is if you then fail to make a good case for why you believe that. Just saying it doesn’t make it right.

So rule number one about using “I” – it often signals a poorly made argument. And it is often a lazy way of making an argument without making a good case for it. That’s why using “I” is often “unacademic”.

Rule number two relates to another instance when it’s a symptom of a worse problem.

Imagine you are reporting on some research that you did and what you discovered. You interview someone (let’s call her Maria) and she tells you that in her experience, she has met more goatee-bearded designers than clean-shaven ones.

Which of these is better:

• “I was told by Maria that most designers she met had goatee beards”
• “Maria told me that most designers she met had goatee beards”
• “Most designers that Maria met had goatee beards”
• “Most designers have goatee beards, according to Maria”

It’s the last one. Why? Because the designers with the goatee beards are the subject of the sentence. When you use “I” or “me” you’re making yourself the subject of the sentence, and you shouldn’t be.

(Why is the third version wrong? Well, because I’m making it clear that this is Maria’s experience or opinion, not a fact, and I’m placing Maria at the end of the sentence to focus on designers and their facial hair. It’s a stylistic thing and I only mention it to help you see what is meant by the “subject” of the sentence.)

So here, rule number two isn’t about being poor “academic” writing, just poor writing.

There now follows some grammar. Sorry about that.

It’s important to know the difference between the “object” of a sentence and its “subject”.

The subject of a sentence is the thing that is doing something. (The verb)

The object of the sentence is the thing that is having something done to it.

Get these in the wrong order and you have a weaker sentence than you want. For example, compare these two sentences:

• The man was bitten by the dog
• The dog bit the man

Which is a better sentence? The answer is the second because it is written in the “active voice” - the verb is more immediate. In the first sentence the subject of the sentence (the man), isn’t doing the verb (the biting.) We call that the “passive voice”. In the second sentence the subject is the dog, and the dog is doing the verb, i.e. biting the man.

The problem with the passive voice is that we tend to write in that style quite naturally in English. I’m sure there’s a cultural reason for it. But it isn’t good style for various reasons, one of which is that it distances us from the action and what’s important. In an episode of House, a patient may turn up with a bite wound. “What happened to him?” says House. “He was bitten by a dog”, says Chase. Cue 40 minutes of dead ends and blind alleys while they try to figure out why the patient is frothing at the mouth. If Chase had said “a dog bit him” maybe the next question would have been “did the dog have rabies?” Admittedly it would make for a very short episode, but will no one think of the poor patient?

Apart from anything else it uses up far more words – in that dog/man example, seven words compared with five. When you’re writing to a word limit, you need to keep your word usage down (believe it or not, despite the most common fear of writing a dissertation, getting to 7,000 words is not the problem, it’s getting down to 7,000!

Using “I” or “me” is often a sign that you’re using the passive voice instead of the active voice. You’re swapping the subject and the object round. “Maria told me that…” or “I was told by Maria that” is extraneous language. Who cares about you and Maria? We want to know about the hairy designers! We know it’s you finding this stuff out, your name’s on the front of the dissertation!

Incidentally, if all this is too much for you, word processors such as Microsoft Word have a grammar checking tool which will alert you to passive voice. So there’s really no excuse…

The grammar police. Just doing their duty…

So that’s why it’s “wrong” to use “I” or “me” – it’s often (but not always) a symptom of a weak, passive writing style, not an attempt to diminish your role. That’s why it’s okay to say:

• I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy

But not:

• The sheriff was shot by me, but the deputy wasn’t.

However in those circumstances I’d advise keeping quiet until you speak to a good lawyer.

New tutorial: Using Word’s Citations Tool to Create Citations and Bibliographies

There’s a new tutorial up – this one will be particularly useful to fourth year students working on their dissertations!

Using Word’s Citations Tool to Create Citations and Bibliographies shows you how to use Word 2007/Word 2008 (PC/Mac) to automatically insert references and bibliographies. Word is really much more useful than most people think and this and other tutorials I’ll post later will show you how to get the best from it.

Tips for taking notes

Writing notes is a crucial skill – not just at university but beyond. It’s a way of remembering something, engaging with what you’re reading, being able to quickly remind yourself of things later, even years later. (Mind Maps are a good way of taking notes visually).
Never read something without making a note somewhere, whether it’s in the book or article (make sure you own it first!) or in a notebook (time to revive the tradition of carrying a notebook with you everywhere, perhaps – there’s a reason why artists and designers swear by Moleskines beyond the “cool” factor).
I write notes on my iPhone or iPad, and I use programs like Evernote, which has a great web clipping service so you can make notes on web sites you find. (It also comes in free versions for your computer, phone or iPad)

This advice, from Times Higher Education applies as much to reading design briefs and researching them as much as it does to essays, reports and dissertations. I’m not sure why people still think the two areas are different – the skills you learn writing essays are entirely transferable to design practice.

I’d question item 2 in this list: “refrain from highlighting text”. I’m guessing the author of these tips believes that highlighting text is a lazy way of making notes, and that actually writing notes is better – and I’d certainly agree with that. But highlighting also helps you quickly see important bits that link up with your notes. So I’d say “refrain from highlighting text unless you also write a note that says why you highlighted it. If you can’t explain why, don’t highlight it!”

How to take notes:

1. Keep notes separate from the source material. Do not write comments on the pages of books and articles
2. Refrain from highlighting text [see my comment above]
3. Ensure that every module has a separate file. Keep notes from module readings separate from lecture and seminar notes
4. Ensure that all references are accurate. This will save time later
5. Either type or write your notes, but ensure they are legible for future use
6. Write the key argument of the writer/s in one sentence
7. Look at the bibliography/reference list used by the writer, noting the quality and dates of the cited scholarship
8. Copy important quotations accurately. Carefully differentiate between your independent interpretation, paraphrasing and direct quotations
9. Ensure notes are sufficiently detailed so that you do not need to return to the original text when writing assignments
10. Ensure your notes are sufficiently brief and you have not paraphrased the entire article.

via Times Higher Education – Tara Brabazon: Take note as another learning discipline slides away.

Dundee student magazine looking for contributors

The University of Dundee’s student magazine is looking for contributors

We are always looking for writers, photographers, sub-editors, designers and promoters. If you were/are ever likely of thinking of becoming involved in the magazine industry, The Magdalen & The Magdalen Online present YOU with the best opportunity of gaining experience whilst at University.

via DUSA University Students Union – The Home for DUSA University Students.

The Studio Unbound: Social Networking for Design Students

The Studio Unbound: Social Networking and Design Education from Jonathan Baldwin on Vimeo.

Dundee Master of Design student Lauren Currie hosts a discussion on social networking for design students, along with design writer Lauren Currie.

Win an iPod Touch!

The Art, Design and Media Subject Centre at the University of Brighton (ADM-HEA)has announced its annual student writing competition:

ADM-HEA invites students studying on art, design or media higher education courses in the UK to enter this year’s writing competition.  This year we invite students to research and produce a piece of critical/creative writing exploring the theme of learning spaces in art, design and media higher education.

Assessment criteria

Submissions will be assessed according to the following criteria and should:

• critically investigate the theme of learning spaces in your area of study;
• reflect on your own experience of learning spaces;
• present the results of this investigation in an imaginative way.

Guidance

When writing your piece please consider the following.  You should:

• be sensitive to cultural, contextual and institutional differences (i.e. it should not expose a particular individual or openly criticise an individual department.  Please anonymise the work);
• not exceed a 1,000-word limit;
• submit your writing with the application form in electronic format;
  use visual imagery as appropriate.  It is the responsibility of the author to seek permission to publish any images before they are submitted.

Submissions that meet the above criteria and make use of the guidance will be published on the ADM-HEA website in advance of the ADM-HEA 2009 Annual Forum: to be held in May at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff and exploring the theme of ‘learning spaces’ in art, design and media higher education.

An overall winning submission will be chosen by the editors of The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice

The winner will receive an iPod Touch and be invited to the Higher Education Academy annual conference to be held in Manchester in July 2009.  This submission will also be published in ADM-HEA’s Networks magazine.

The closing date for entries is Friday, 27 March 2009.

If you have any questions, please contact Jenny Embleton on 01273 643119 or email adm@heacademy.ac.uk

Application form

Guidance and criteria

Postgraduate Open Days at University of the Arts, London

Thinking of Masters study in design? Of course there’s always our own Master of Design at Dundee, or the new MSc in Design Ethnography, both of which I heartily recommend…

But in the interests of collegiality, and because I’ve heard good things about it, I thought I’d mention the MA in Design Writing Criticism down in London run by Professor Teal Triggs.

Students on the course are giving a presentation on Wednesday 4th February 2009 5:30-6:30pm in the School of Graphic Design, London College of Communication

A general talk about postgraduate courses at LCC will take place 4:30-5:00pm

This event is ‘free’ but advanced booking is recommended via the online booking form:

Postgraduate Open Days
http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/40788.htm

London College of Communication
University of the Arts London
Elephant & Castle
London SE1 6SB
England

Tubes: Northern and Bakerloo Lines
http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/lcc_location.htm

For further details about the MA Design Writing Criticism course, please contact:
Professor Teal Triggs, Course Director
t.triggs@lcc.arts.ac.uk

The course is now accepting applications for October 2009 entry, both part-time and full-time mode.

Designers don’t write? Bullshit.

Quite a lot of the second year articles I read recently were really interesting, and like in previous years two things hit me: firstly the number of students who write really well, and should be writing lots more; and secondly the number of students who write quite well and, if they wrote more would soon learn to write really well.

Yet the number of design students over the past 10 years that I’ve been teaching who’ve come up to me and said “I can’t write” is pretty depressing. Can’t write? Of course you can.
Worse – the number of students who say “I can’t write because I’m creative”. Ohhhkaaay… I never thought that people who write aren’t being creative but whatever.

The key to being a good writer is having something to say. It could be an opinion, a thought, a link to something you’ve seen, or anything.
The second key is just doing it. Actually, that’s quite important. I’ve written Pulitzer Prize-winning stuff in my head but it ain’t gonna get any accolades there, is it?

Blogging is easy. Some would say too easy. But it’s good practice for writing and, if that’s not a good enough incentive (I know, it isn’t) it’s certainly one of the best ways of meeting people and networking. Just about every important designer alive today keeps a blog, or contributes to one. And how do I define “every important designer”? They’re the ones who blog.
In fact, I think blogging has become the number one way of networking and breaking out of the London-centric cycle that works against anyone who lives in the nice bits of the world. Twitter is number two, in case you were wondering.

The idea that writing and design are somehow mutually exclusive is the sort of crap that really should be challenged. Designers write. End of story. So if you’re not writing, you should be.

Over Christmas I read The Huffington Post Guide To Blogging (see link above) and I really recommend it for its advice on setting up and running a blog. I also recommend listening to this entertaining series of podcasts from Merlin Mann on the subject. He breaks down blogging in to a few key steps and sets little tasks to get you going. He also, like the Huffington book, talks about how to get people to notice you’re out there. Write something interesting, link to someone else, and before long you’ll get noticed.

You can set up a blog really easily, for free. Visit blogger.com to find out one way. Now. Go on!

So what do you think? Do you blog already? If so, post a link. And if not, why not?

Wells Fargo Improves Communications With Ethnography

Writing is a key element of design, especially in marketing and advertising, yet we often forget about it in design education – to our detriment. When I worked as a graphic designer in a marketing department I probably spent 80%+ of my time writing. The best ideas for the best ads always seem to start with the words, not the design, and that’s certainly the lesson to be learnt from looking at the winners of each year’s Advertising Effectiveness Awards (far better than the more famous D&AD awards in terms of identifying what works, in my opinion).

The role of ‘copy’ in ads and other forms of communication is essential and the US company Wells Fargo recently used ethnography to study how its customers responded to different types of message.

Bruce Temkin analysed the results and summarised them on his blog:

The bank recruited 20 customers who matched their three target personas to comment on all of the communications (e.g., account service notification, marketing solicitations) they received from Wells Fargo and other organizations over a 30-day period. These customers called a toll-free number to share their immediate reaction about the documents and they also kept a scrapbook in which they wrote comments about each communication. The bank brought the most engaged customers together to debrief them in-person about their scrapbooks.

Lessons learned.

Here are some of the insights that Wells Fargo took away from the research:

• The bank’s communications were meeting the basic needs of customers, but were falling short on the humanistic dimensions of ‘approachable’ and ‘empathetic.’
• Customers wanted the bank to communicate like it knew them, similar to other communications they received from organizations like AARP.
• Marketing messages, especially those with presumptive language like ’Congratulations!’ or ‘Good News,’ were viewed quite negatively; customers used words like ‘ploy’ and ‘scheme’ to describe them.
• The bank could mitigate negative reactions to bad news like a notice of insufficient funds if the communications provided relevant advice.
• Many consumers view the bank’s Website as the primary visual reference point; noticing differences with layout, color, and other design elements in the communications.
• To ensure that the results were actionable, key stakeholders were engaged throughout the process. The findings were ‘socialized’ with 700+ content writers across Wells Fargo during 30+ workshops.

Educational Software Bargains

MacUpdate have released their latest software bundle and it focuses on tools of use to students.

Among the titles of particular interest to anyone writing or researching essays and dissertations are DevonAgent, which is quite a useful tool for online research (I’ve found it great for finding links between different topics) and BookEnds which helps compile bibliographies.
A word processor, Mellel, offers an alternative to Word that promises to be helpful in compiling long documents with different sections.

As more bundles are sold, other programs get unlocked and MacJournal has just become available – another useful tool this time for keeping notes and ideas.

Highly recommended – all these titles would cost $600 (£300+) but are available for just $49.99 (£25+)

Click the ad below for more details or visit the MacUpdate promo page.

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