Academic Writing

A lot of people ask me if I like my classes. My response is usually a sort of sad pause and then, "Uh...sorta. I'm still deciding." Which of course is an evasion, since we're three weeks into the 10-week quarter. Surly I've made up my mind by now?

My first class is Statistics, which has been easy so far. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop, actually. It can't continue to be so easy, can it? The focus of the class is more on the application of statistics, using charts and graphs. We go over the math, but the really it's about learning how to the use a statistics analysis software called SAS. The math part is more about understanding the data than about crunching numbers and memorizing formulas. (Thank goodness!) I like this class because I think it very useful. (Also, the professor is quite good at explaining the math.)

My second class is Group and Organizational Dynamics. The intent of this class is to teach us about the ways that groups interact in the workplace, and talk about these interactions in terms of (management) tools. I have mixed feelings about this class. On one hand I appreciate the intent; but I'm not sure the execution lives up to my expectations of this program. That's all I'll say here, though--you can ask me privately if you want details!

Of the three classes I'm taking, my favorite and also the most irritating class is "The International System." It's irritating in large part because of the IMMENSE amount of reading associated with the course. I told a couple of people that it was about 500 pages a week, but I just added up this week's readings and it only comes out to about 425 pages of dense academic reading, not 500. All of the reading is highly technical, full of citations and references to other academics' writings. It assumes a lot of prior knowledge about the subject, and is made more difficult in that we're assigned sections from larger texts--say chapters 3 and 4 of a book--and so even have full knowledge of the specific text that we're reading. I always feel a little frustrated when I read something like, "As you remember from Chapter 1...."

To make it all more difficult, each author seems to come up with his own
slight variation on terms to describe his particular flavor of the concept. So there are a dozen different words to talk about the same general theories. From one 50 page paper (and let me say these are not all about the same things): constructivist, conventional realist, structural realist, structural materialist, statist, regime theorist, hegemonic regime theorist, neoliberal, idealist....

And so on. And all of the texts assume I already understand all these terms, and have read most of other writers on subject. For a novice, they're completely unapproachable, and are clear demonstrations of why I dislike academic writing.

I need a dictionary of international relations theoretical terminology. Better yet, I need an "International Relations for Dummies" book. Only there isn't one; this class makes me want to write it.

Because the subject is interesting. The theory is interesting. When I can make my way through the jargon and get to the meat, I am fascinated more often than not. If only I had the time to spend on this! Because that's the difficulty of this class--it's so much more work than my other classes (combined) that I'm perpetually behind. (And then, in class today, the professor says that we should "read that article again." Again? I haven't even gotten through everything once, and now you want me to read that incredible dense 70-page article--which took me 4 hours to read last night--again??)

At least it's interesting, though. Right?