I am bored with writing formal essays. I do feel that they need to exist and be done for classes, to a certain extent. Some classes, like English and History classes, need formality in their writing. Research papers always need to be formal. It's indubitable.
This is the thing. If I were a teacher, I want to read something honest and something that is not going to put me to sleep halfway through a stack of papers. I feel like "informal" papers are a format that is highly conducive to the flow of thoughts. Being formal is somewhat stifling. Being informal allows for a lot more creativity, new ideas about old topics, and it's just more interesting for everyone involved.
Think about this hypothetical situation: You are in a movie theater. This particular theater happens only to show documentaries. You and your friends are in the mood for some Beowulf. You have two choices. One is a stream of monotonous, bow tie wearing professors who have never left the ivory towers talking at you about Old English. The other is a modern adaptation of Beowulf as told through the perspective of high school students.
Did you choose the second one? I did, too. It seems more fun. It gives a new perspective on something that's been around since about 450 C.E. instead of telling you $#*! everyone's already heard. I want to be honest in my writing. If I can speak to a professor and tell them how I feel about a topic and my thoughts on it, I feel this better displays my mastery of the topic than a paper that I had two weeks to potentially get help from other people on. Don't you? Just sayin'. Freedom in the classroom, freedom in the brain. Happy happy joy joy.
I like your view on this. I recently took a class about the news and we learned a lot about commentaries and editorials in the newspapers. Instead of writing formal papers we were allowed to write commentaries. Writing a commentary is so much easier because you just get right to your point without all of the extra "stuff". I find myself writing in a commentary style a lot now but I enjoy it and I seem to get positive feedback from it.
ReplyDeleteMy point was just that it's a more interesting and more honest form of writing. I'm glad to see that someone agrees with me.
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