Your Academic "First-Person" Essay: Victorianists Help Out
Many thanks to June for pointing me to the extremely helpful essay posted by The Little Professor, who, having noticed that the first-person essays in the Chronicle of Higher Education sometimes sound Much Alike, has created a helpful guide for those of use who want to write a first-person essay for that important academic journal, but are sort of pressed for time.
It's multiple choice, so it's Really Easy:
1. I am
___ writing under a clever pseudonym
___ writing under an uninspired pseudonym
___ using my own name
2. At present, I am
___ tenured, unfortunately, at a wonderful college
___ tenured, unfortunately, at the campus from hell
___ tenured, unfortunately, at an institution that fails to appreciate my scintillating qualities
___ untenured, unfortunately, at a wonderful college
___ untenured, unfortunately, at the campus from hell
___ untenured, unfortunately, at an institution that fails to appreciate my scintillating qualities
___ a much put-upon administrator
___ a recently-fired (without cause!) administrator
3. I'm terribly, terribly unhappy, because
___ I thought life after tenure would be bliss, and it's just the same-old, same-old
___ my colleagues fail to appreciate my scintillating qualities
___ there's a poststructuralist/Marxist/cultural materialist/New Historicist/Lacanian/ deconstructionist/other in my department
___ there isn't a poststructuralist/Marxist/cultural materialist/New Historicist/Lacanian/ deconstructionist/other in my department
___ there are politics! in academia!
___ if I had been born fifty years ago, there would have been no politics! in academia!
___ if I had been born fifty years ago, there would have been my kind of politics! in academia!
___ academic work isn't all about Twoo Wuv for your subject
___ people are so mean to me
___ students don't appreciate all the effort I put into teaching them
4. I can prove that what I say is true, because
___ I have personal anecdotes
___ I'm going to reveal confidential data from job searches and personnel decisions
___ the CoHE published this essay, and therefore it must be true
This goes on -- and remains funny. Go on over and check it out.
Alas, I cannot use this format, since I'm happy with my job. Darn. So I'll miss out on my chance to get published in the Chronicle using this quick and easy format. Alas.
But thanks, June, for pointing me to the Little Professor in general -- I was coming to the party late, apparently.
It's multiple choice, so it's Really Easy:
1. I am
___ writing under a clever pseudonym
___ writing under an uninspired pseudonym
___ using my own name
2. At present, I am
___ tenured, unfortunately, at a wonderful college
___ tenured, unfortunately, at the campus from hell
___ tenured, unfortunately, at an institution that fails to appreciate my scintillating qualities
___ untenured, unfortunately, at a wonderful college
___ untenured, unfortunately, at the campus from hell
___ untenured, unfortunately, at an institution that fails to appreciate my scintillating qualities
___ a much put-upon administrator
___ a recently-fired (without cause!) administrator
3. I'm terribly, terribly unhappy, because
___ I thought life after tenure would be bliss, and it's just the same-old, same-old
___ my colleagues fail to appreciate my scintillating qualities
___ there's a poststructuralist/Marxist/cultural materialist/New Historicist/Lacanian/ deconstructionist/other in my department
___ there isn't a poststructuralist/Marxist/cultural materialist/New Historicist/Lacanian/ deconstructionist/other in my department
___ there are politics! in academia!
___ if I had been born fifty years ago, there would have been no politics! in academia!
___ if I had been born fifty years ago, there would have been my kind of politics! in academia!
___ academic work isn't all about Twoo Wuv for your subject
___ people are so mean to me
___ students don't appreciate all the effort I put into teaching them
4. I can prove that what I say is true, because
___ I have personal anecdotes
___ I'm going to reveal confidential data from job searches and personnel decisions
___ the CoHE published this essay, and therefore it must be true
This goes on -- and remains funny. Go on over and check it out.
Alas, I cannot use this format, since I'm happy with my job. Darn. So I'll miss out on my chance to get published in the Chronicle using this quick and easy format. Alas.
But thanks, June, for pointing me to the Little Professor in general -- I was coming to the party late, apparently.
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