Sean Tyler: Blog Post 8

The non-fiction case study helped to illuminate the author’s point about non-academic writing. Throughout the article Goode is informal and personable, using descriptive language to illustrate Lorain’s reactions to his suggestions. Goode has an ongoing argument with Loraine about the benefits of non-fiction creative writing, accessibility, description, and personalization, and these are evident in his writing about the dispute. The evidence on display in this case study are passages of the subject’s writing, showing how stylistic elements have developed, surrounding these with a similarly personalized and informal approach feels seamless.

The academic case study is better for tracking larger amounts of data and recording survey questions and responses. An informal style would create a disconnect between the carefully recorded empirical data and the prose surrounding it.

I prefer to read the less academic case studies because I am able to discern more of both the student and the tutor’s philosophies around writing and their personalities. Tutoring is so individual I prefer to have a better sense of the people involved in the case study. The amount of information in a more formal case study is excellent, but descriptions of one-on-one interactions are easier to translate into my own tutoring practice. I have not written any case studies yet, but I predict that I would enjoy writing the more informal non-fiction pieces more. I appreciated the collaborative nature of the non-fiction work with the student’s work being recreated as well as having the student quoted directly in the piece.


Comments

  1. ConorOctober 27, 2020 at 7:46 AM

    Love your point here about the individuality of tutors and their students being replicated more easily in the non-fiction form! That definitely seems to be lost in the more academic approaches, and I think you're right that the non-fiction approach allows the reader, presumably a tutor or someone interested in tutoring, to more easily see how to apply and use the ideas and techniques from the case study.

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  2. C OOctober 27, 2020 at 8:59 PM

    I was struck by your comment on the disconnect between an informal style and empirical data. That notion definitely sounds true, but why is it so? One of the best academic articles I’ve read is a 30-page law journal article analyzing the concept of plagiarism (“Plagiarize This Paper” by Brian L. Frye). It sounds dry, but it's written in an informal style that makes it readable and interesting to non-lawyers. It was published in a highly rated journal, it was obviously well-researched, and yet it was written by someone that wasn’t afraid to be funny. I wonder what it would take for more academics to write like that.

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