"OK, so what did I miss?"
A Transfer Student Tutorial on Expos. 101
by Barclay Barrios
Assistant Director of the Writing Program
Transfer students come in with strong writing skills—strong enough
to skip Rutgers' standard composition class, 101. But they may experience
difficulties in writing intensive courses where they are required to
write long, analytical essays and research papers, and where professors
often assume they have developed all the skills practiced in 101. For
transfer students, understanding what other students learned in 101
is the first step to becoming a confident and successful writer at Rutgers.
Introduction
Let’s start by reassuring you that we know you DO know how to
write. After all, if you couldn't write, you wouldn't have gotten into
college in the first place. But it's important to realize that 101 and
many other college courses focus on a different kind of writing than
you may be used to. Similarly, when you enter Calculus, you know math,
but you don't know that kind of math. Just as Calc focuses on a particular
kind of math, writing intensive courses tend to focus on a particular
kind of writing, one that can, like Calc, be a little tricky to learn.
That’s why we’ve created this tutorial. As you scroll down,
don’t be intimidated because it’s a bit long. Skim through
to get a sense of what the issues are, and return, when you have time,
to work through each section in detail. Here’s a brief outline
of the contents to get you started:
A description of 101 (back to introduction)
So how is 101 different from the first semester composition class you
took at your previous college? To be honest, the focus of the RU composition
program isn't writing, really. Instead, we are trying to teach critical
thinking. That's important. After all, in the "real world,"
you'll never be asked to write a five page essay connecting essays by
the writers Walker Percy and Stanley Fish, but throughout college and
in any career you choose you'll be expect to know how to think. That's
what 101 teaches, thinking. Of course, the only way for an instructor
to know how you are thinking, and what you are thinking, is to read
your thoughts, and since we're not psychic, we read those thoughts in
papers.
And we don't care about just any thoughts. The point of 101 is to think
critically, which in terms of the 101 paper means to make an argument
supported by connections between very complex essays. Every 101 paper,
like many college papers, should be a response to readings that reflects
the student writer’s careful thinking about what a few scholars
or writers have said. Learning how to make sense of difficult texts
is, in fact, one of the skills 101 students work on through the whole
semester.
“Is this Written in English?”:
Some Tips on Making Sense of College Readings (back
to introduction)
You may have noticed that professors often assign readings that are
long and mind-bendingly complicated. Sometimes you may feel as if you
are reading a foreign language. Such reading can’t be done quickly
and also well. It might surprise you to find out that even your professors
may have had to read a particularly complex article many times before
getting a handle on it.
There are a few approaches to complex readings that may help you to
make sense of them. Begin by recognizing that you can’t be passive
if you are reading a difficult text with a complicated argument. Highlighting
passages in neon yellow won’t actually help you to make sense of
them, so that shouldn’t be your only strategy. Instead, be an active
reader by doing the following:
- Look for repetition of words, ideas, or phrases.
They might be important to the argument as a whole.
- Look for words in bold, italics, or quotations marks.
- Look for passages you don't understand. You may not
understand them because the author is trying to express a difficult,
complex, or important idea.
- Pay attention to any questions the author asks. They
may be pointing you towards the argument.
- Look for the ways in which the title of the essay
relates to the content.
- Pay close attention to any examples that the author
gives. Try to figure out how they prove her or his argument.
- Try to state the argument in your own words periodically
as you read, and at least jot notes in the margins, or, better yet,
write a more detailed response to the reading.
- Pay close attention to the opening and closing of
the essay. Look for places where the author summarizes his or her
argument.
- Pay attention to places that you react to. If a passage
provokes a response, that may mean you are about to do some critical
thinking--it might be that you want to think about what the author
just wrote.
Finally, don’t keep your thoughts (or fears) to yourself. In a
typical 101 class, the professor will divide the class into small groups
to discuss a passage from the reading. We do this is because we know
that it helps to talk to other readers when you are trying to make sense
of a difficult article. (In fact, that’s what professors do with
their scholarly colleagues. They talk, and even argue, about what so-and-so
meant when she wrote this or that.) In 101 we also have students discuss
readings together because we know that it’s important for them
to see that they are not alone in their struggle with the text. No one
has an easy time with complex material. So, as you try to make sense
of a reading, talk to other students for 15 minutes or so before or
after a class, or over coffee at the Student Center. If you are still
completely at sea, you can also make an appointment to meet with your
professor.
Now that you have a better sense of how we work with readings in 101,
let’s look at a sample 101 assignment.
"I have to write about what?": The 101 Assignment (back
to introduction)
This is a sample essay assignment from one of my 101 classes. It should
give you a sense of what we ask students to do in 101:
Assignment #2
In your last essay, I asked you to consider Pratt's argument about
the relationship between classrooms and contact zones. For this essay,
I want you take expand your use of the idea of the contact zone by
seeing how useful it is to describe and talk about other situations.
Specifically, I would like you to write an essay in which you use
Pratt's idea of the contact zone to explore the problem of historical
analysis that Jane Tompkins proposes in her essay, "'Indians':
Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History." How do contact
zones relate to perspectivism in historical study? To what extent
do contact zones, like perspectivism, "wipe out completely the
subject matter of history" (Tompkins 599)? To what extent does
Pratt's idea of the contact zone present a way around perspectivism?
Is there any "contact" in the histories that Tompkins examines;
at least, is there any contact which is at all beneficial? Are there
specific "arts of the contact zone" for doing historical
analysis? What happens as each contact becomes more remote (Indians/Europeans
---> scholars/material ---> Tompkins/scholar ---> you/Tompkins)?
You probably want to pay attention to the last section of Tompkins'
essay, particularly the last two paragraphs. How does Tompkins' solution
to the problem of history relate to Pratt's idea of the contact zone?
Also consider autoethnography. Are any of the texts Tompkins examines
autoethnographic? Could any of them be described as ethnographic?
What about the essay as a whole—is it ethnographic or autoethnographic?
Draw from Pratt's discussion of these terms and their relation to
contact zones. As a way of getting a handle on this essay, you might
want to start also to think about power in both Pratt and Tompkins:
who has power in the contact zone?—is it shared equally?; similarly,
who has power in Tompkins' essay?—and what is the relationship
between writing history (or making history) and power?
My assignments are all basically the same: I always ask my students
to locate an argument that connects the two essays. In this case, I'm
asking them to connect two seemingly very different essays: Pratt is
writing about power in the classroom and Tompkins is writing about the
difficulties of doing historical analysis. It takes a lot of thinking
to connect these ideas, and it is just that critical thinking I look
for in the papers I read. More specifically, I look for how students
use quotation to connect the two essays. When you use quotation to support
an argument by connecting two essays, you are doing the work asked of
you by many college writing assignments.
If we think of quotation as the meat of your paper, argument is the
backbone. So before we get into quote work, let’s think a little
bit about arguments, OK?
"You blankety blank blank!": Having an argument (back
to introduction)
We've all had arguments in our lives—knock down, drag out, spit
in your face, pull your hair arguments. But that's not what professors
want in their classes: violence just doesn't sell well with the Dean’s
Office. So what do we mean when we say argument? Look at these examples:
"Rutgers is a University."
Is this an argument?
"I like Rutgers University."
Is this an argument?
"Rutgers is better than Princeton."
Is this an argument?
Clearly, the first is a fact, and you’d be foolish to argue with
it. The second might seem at first to be an argument, but really it’s
an opinion. I could disagree with you, but that disagreement isn’t
the sort of argument professors are looking for in your essays. The
third statement is an argument because, quite simply, we could argue
about it in a way that is more complicated than a simple disagreement
or agreement.
To define more clearly what argument is in a college paper, let's think
about an argument you might have had at some point in your life. Let's
assume you want some money from your parents. You might start arguing
for that money with, "Mom, I need more money" (somehow Moms
are always more willing to give money than Dads). We can think of this
as an argument since Mom will probably say "No, you don't need
more money." Note that you start by saying what you are going to
argue—in this case, you're going to argue that you do, in fact,
need cash. Similarly, when you sit down to write your paper, make sure
you state what you are going to argue very early on and very clearly.
This is sometimes called a "thesis statement," but maybe a
better way to think about it is that if you don't say exactly what point
you want to make right off, no one will be able to follow what you're
trying to prove. You want to be specific, too. Saying "Mom I need
something" is not going to help, just as saying "I will make
some connections in this paper" doesn't help, either.
THE FIRST RULE OF ARGUING IS TO SPELL IT OUT BEFORE YOU START IT.
So Mom said "No." Do you give up? Of course not. You set out
to prove to your Mom that you do, in fact, need money. How do you do
that? What if she asks "Why?"? Do you answer "Well, because"?
Not if you really want the money. Instead, you start giving evidence
that you need the money.
THE SECOND RULE OF ARGUING IS TO PROVE YOUR ARGUMENT WITH EVIDENCE.
(back to introduction)
With Moms, that evidence will probably include a long list of expenses
associated with college life. In college essays, that evidence is connection
between different ideas you’ve encountered in the course and your
readings. Think of all this in terms of critical thinking: you think
about a few difficult texts long and hard. You find some point you want
to make about those texts. You think about how what each author says
proves your point. You make the argument and use quotation to prove
it—all the while using critical thinking.
OK, now that you have a sense of argument as the backbone of your paper,
let’s get back to the meat – quotation and connection.
"Hey, I never thought of that": The 101 Connection
(back to introduction)
This is a paragraph from an actual student paper. Pay attention to
the way it uses quotation to make a point:
Unlike Pratt, Tompkins recognizes perspectivism as a trap. If one
gets stuck on perspectivism then no conclusions can be reached. This
sort of end may be acceptable in, "...the academic situation...[where]
one can linger on the threshold of decision in the name of an epistemological
principle" (Tompkins 600), but, Tompkins realizes that some conclusion
must be reached writing, "...I must piece together the story
of European-Indian relations as best I can, believing this version
up to a point, that version not at all, another almost entirely, according
to what seems reasonable and plausible, given everything else that
I know" (600). Tompkins rejects perspectivism as a stumbling
block, while Pratt seems to be satisfied with meandering classroom
discussion, "...[we] had to work in the knowledge that whatever
one said was going to be systematically received in radically heterogenous
ways that we were neither able or entitled to prescribe" (Pratt
454). Pratt's contact zone, rife with the drawbacks of perspectivism,
will ultimately lead nowhere, not in education and especially not
in the study of history.
What does quotation do in this paragraph?
"A = B ¹ Connection": Some Notes on Connection
There's a danger in saying that using quotation means making connections.
After all, that just means that you find similarities between two authors,
A = B. But that's not enough, because it doesn't take a whole lot of
thinking to find similarities (Think Sesame Street: "Which of these
things is not like the others . . . " ). Instead, you have to always
answer the question "And so?": Author A says X, which is like
(or unlike) Author B saying Y . . . and so?
Take a look again at the paragraph from the student paper. What connection
is he making between Pratt and Tompkins?
And so? What does that connection mean according to the student? What's
the point?
THIS is the difference between "having" quotation and "using"
quotation. Anyone can have quotation in their papers: all it takes is
two quotation marks and a snippet of text from an article or book you've
read. But using quotation means connecting the ideas of the authors
through those quotations AND making that connection meaningful by explaining
what difference it makes, how it supports your argument, and/or what
we learn from putting A next to B.
Let's look at another student example:
Two main comparisons make the connection between Tompkins and Wittig
seem very obvious. The first comparison deals with what people "see,"
while the second deals with why people "see" that. Early
on in her essay, Tompkins writes that:It isn't that Miller didn't
"see" the black men, in a literal sense, any more than it's
the case when he looked back and didn't "see" the Indians,
in the sense of not realizing they were there. Rather, it's that neither
the Indians nor the black counted for him, in a fundamental way. (133)In
this quote, Tompkins has argued that Miller, a product of the American
50's, could not recognize that people of color are really people.
This allowed him to think in a way which excluded, from her viewpoint,
important parts of history. A similar argument can be applied to Wittig's
essay. In truth, it is not that Witting cannot recognize that there
truly are some fundamental "differences" between men and
women, but rather it is that there are no "differences"
which count in her mind. Wittig, in face, argues that "Masculine/feminine,
male/female are categories which serve to conceal the fact that social
difference always belong to an economic, political, and ideological
order" (2). In saying this Wittig has not stated that men and
women are inherently exactly alike, but rather that distinctions between
men and women are unnecessary and discriminatory when applied to the
economic and political world.
What does quotation do in this paragraph? Does this paragraph have
or use quotation? And how does it do that? What are the quotations doing?
Is there an "and so?"?
"But how do I do that?": Some quotation basics (back
to introduction)
I always introduce my 101 students to a basic formula for using a
quotation. Keep in mind, that this is a basic formula. It's just to
help you think about one way to use quotation:
Connection = Q1+(E1)+I +Q2+(E2)+ C
In this formula, the first Q is a quote from one author. The first
E means that after giving the quote you might explain it briefly, putting
it into your own words perhaps. Then you introduce your connection,
usually with some sort of phrase like "This is similar to . . .
." Then you give the quote that connects to that first one, a quote
from another author. You might also explain that quote, the second E.
BUT, you definitely explain the connection, that's the C.
Without that C, all you're saying is that the two authors are similar.
The last part is crucial because it answers the question "and so?"—it
relates this connection into your argument.
Take a look at the sample 101 paragraphs again. Is there a pattern something
like this? More importantly, do you see a pattern like this in your
writing?
"Map it out": Making the Pattern Work
Here's an exercise I like to use to make sure students are one, finding
a connection between two quotes and two, explaining that connection.
Start with a blank piece of paper and then draw a line straight down
the middle from top to bottom. Pick two quotations that you think connect
and write one of them on each side of the line, so that you can actually
look at the quotes next to each other.
Now, underline the words in both quotations that you feel make them
connect.
Write those words/phrases on either side of the line under the quotations.
Now you can see just which pieces of the two quotes connect.
Finally, write a sentence that explains the connection you see using
the phrases you just jotted down. This sentence is the C of your equation
since it refers directly to each quote to explain the connection you
want to make.
Of course, you can't do this for every quotation in your paper—let's
face it, you just don't have time. But it's a good exercise to get you
started on working with quotations to make very solid connections. Give
it a try and see if it works for you.
"What about my paper?": Making this Work for You (back
to introduction)
Now you have a lot of tools you can use to work on your own paper.
Let's review what we've covered first:
- COLLEGE WRITING IS ABOUT CRITICAL THINKING. The
purpose of the 101 paper, as with many college papers, is to pursue
an argument that shows you've thought critically about several complex
texts.
- CONNECTIONS SHOW CRITICAL THINKING. As a student
thinks about the ideas in those essays, she/he makes a connection
between them. So connection is the base of critical thinking.
- QUOTATIONS MAKE CONNECTIONS. Quotation provides
the specific evidence that supports your argument. It backs up your
critical thinking by taking the reader to the very places in the essay
where you had a critical thought: while reading quote one, you thought
of quote two.
- USING QUOTATIONS MAKES CONNECTIONS BY SHOWING
CRITICAL THINKING. In order to use quotation, you have to first
apply one author to another, connect them through their similarity
(or dissimilarity). But then you must also explain why this connection
means something. You have to answer the question "and so?".
In advanced courses, you often have to research a subject, pursuing
an argument, and then using quotation to prove that argument. You
are making knowledge. SO, YOU SHOULD go through your paper and make
sure that your quotations prove your argument.
- CONNECTION IS NOT JUST SIMILARITY. To use
quotation, it's never enough to just say Author A is like Author B.
You must always answer the question "and so?": there must
be meaning in your connection, it has to do something for your argument.
SO, YOU SHOULD go through your paper and make sure that each time
you make a connection you explain how it relates to your argument.
- THERE IS A BASIC FORMULA FOR CONNECTION.
So study it. Keep it mind that it puts an emphasis on the connection
being made and the way in which these quotations prove the argument.
SO, YOU SHOULD use this formula, but sparingly. After all, it's very
basic. Modify it as you will, but always be sure that you are explaining
the connection you see between the quotations clearly, using the connection
exercise if necessary to find the very words of each quotation that
make the connection and then incorporating those words into your explanation.
"I still feel overwhelmed": Making a Plan of Action
Being anal-retentive can be a real bonus when working on a college
paper, since the more organized you are, the better a grasp you'll have
on things.
Start by making an outline. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just
start by writing your argument at the top of a page and then sketch
out how you will prove that argument in the paper. As you work more,
have a clear sense of what each paragraph is going to do, and then note
which quotations you will use in each paragraph. Writing a long paper
can seem overwhelming, but if you break it down paragraph by paragraph,
it can seem a lot more manageable.
If you already have a draft, do a post-draft outline. Start by finding
the sentence that expresses your argument and writing it at the top
of the page. Then write a one-sentence summary of each paragraph of
your paper. It will be tempting to use phrases or single words to “name”
the main idea of each paragraph, but this exercise won’t work unless
you express the key point of the paragraph in a complete sentence. Complete
sentences can express complete thoughts, and if you are using fragments
in your outline, you may not have complete thoughts in your paragraphs.
You might see another indication of a problem in your argument if you
can't summarize a paragraph in one sentence. If you find yourself writing
several sentences, then you may have put ideas for two paragraphs into
one, and you need to break that paragraph up to make your points clear
to your reader.
After you're done with your post-draft outline, you'll have a road-map
of your paper as it stands. Take a look at each paragraph and ask "How
does this relate to my argument?": just as every use of quotation
should somehow be proving your argument, so too should every paragraph
have a clear purpose. If you have any paragraph that doesn't seem to
directly support your argument, you might ask yourself if you need it.
Go back through your writing and make sure that each paragraph clearly
relates to your argument and that each use of quotation within that
paragraph similarly builds into the argument.
"Bonus!": Extra Tips and More on Quotation (back
to introduction)
As an extra help, I want to include some guidelines that one of my
summer classes helped develop. Hopefully, these will give you some more
insight into the paper, overall:
Approaches to Assignments
- Read the assignment thoroughly.
- Ask any questions you have about the assignment.
- Look over your notes and the readings.
- Figure out your strengths: what part(s) of the readings
did you understand best or do you feel you can best work with?
- Make a list of all connections you can think of between
the readings.
- Figure out an argument.
- Make a list of tasks for the assignment.
- Paraphrase the assignment to make sure you understand
it.
Introduction to Argument
- State want you want to argue before you start arguing
it.
Give evidence.
- Elaborate on the evidence.
- Be specific, in your argument and your evidence.
- Think through your argument.
- Do not attack or insult--show respect.
- Organize your ideas and your evidence.
- Anticipate objections.
- Don't use evidence that is too brief or too long.
- To help you find an argument for a paper, list all
possible connections you see between the readings. Then try to find
a pattern in those connections.
Quotation versus Paraphrase
- Quotations are the exact words from a text. Indicate
that they came from someone else by placing them in quotation marks
-- " " -- and be sure to use parenthetical notation to let
the read know where the quotation came from.
- Paraphrasing means that you express the idea of the
author in your own words. That means completely rephrasing the sentences
you find in the essay.
- If you copy any part of a text word for word in a
paper you hand and if you do not use quotations marks to indicate
what you have quoted, that is plagiarism, and plagiarism can get you
in serious trouble. Moreover, since using the words from the essay
means simply repeating the essay, it doesn't help your work since
it doesn't show any critical thinking at all.
Now, for those of you who want to so some advanced work on quotation,
here’s more:
"Is that it?": More on Quotation
One new trick to using quotation well is realizing that there are different
kinds of quotation. Let's look at some examples:
TYPE ONE
Let's start by looking at some quotations from an essay by Emily Martin.
Here she quotes Karl Marx:
Marcellino is doing critical theory in the sense specified by Marx
in 1843: “The self-clarification of the struggles and wishes
of the age” (quoted in Fraser, 1989, 113). (69)
This quotation from Marx doesn’t prove anything. What does it
do?
TYPE TWO
Another example from Martin:
The economy is expanding because the wealthiest 40 percent get 68
percent of the income, creating consumer power to keep companies in
business but leaving 60 percent of the population unable to participate
(Peterson 1994). This helps explain why many people feel as if they
are living through a depression. As an example, there is the family
with three children who between them hold four jobs but make only
$18,000 a year (Johnson 1994). “When it was noted that two million
new jobs were created last year, the husband quickly put that statistic
in perspective. ‘Sure, we’ve got four of them. So what?’”
(Herbert 1994). (75-6)
What does this kind of quote do for an argument? What does it do for
Martin here? What can it do in your paper?
TYPE THREE
Now back to Tompkins:
My research began with Perry Miller. Early in the preface to Errand
into the Wilderness, while explaining how he came to write his history
of the New England mind, Miller writes a sentence that stopped me
dead. He says that what fascinated him as a young man about his country’s
history was “the massive narrative of movement of European culture
into the vacant wilderness of America.” “Vacant?” Miller,
writing in 1956, doesn’t pause over the word “vacant,”
but to people who read his preface thirty years later, the word is
shocking. In what circumstances could someone proposing to write a
history of colonial New England not take account of the Indian presence
there? (125)
How is this use of quotations different?
"1, 2, huh?": The Three Types of Quotation
Let's take a look at those three types again and see if we can figure
out what they do:
TYPE ONE
This is the most basic way of using quotation. All this quotation does
is define a term or make a statement. It doesn't connect, it doesn't
show critical thinking, but it can still be useful in your paper. Sometimes
you need to define a term you're going to use, and sometimes you need
a statement from one author which might set up a connection next time.
These are the places you should use Quote One.
Go back through your paper and look for this type of quotation, one
which only makes a statement. Keep in mind that it doesn't prove anything.
What are you using this type of quotation to do?
TYPE TWO
This is the kind of quotation we've been looking at a lot—the
kind that makes a connection between two authors. This is a very important
kind of quotation, since it does prove something and does serve as evidence
in your argument. In fact, just as it is the basis of the 101 paper,
it is also the main kind of quotation use you'll find in a 102 paper.
Go back through your paper and look for this type of quotation, one
which connects two different quotations. Keep in mind that in order
to be doing this kind of work, you need to have a quotation from two
authors and you need to connect them and you need to explain that connection
and you need to explain how that connection relates to your argument.
What do you use this type of quotation to do?
TYPE THREE
This is a very powerful use of quotation, generally called "close
reading." This kind of analysis is decisive, as Tompkins uses a
single word from the quotation to launch her offensive, paying attention
to what Miller did not see and how that omission related to his place
in history. And this analysis feeds directly into her argument.
In your own text, close reading can be very useful. Once you have established
a particular theory or term or definition or paradigm, you can pay close
attention to a quotation to prove a point about it. As its name suggests,
close reading involves reading the text closely, paying attention to
each and every word and making your argument from what is (or is not)
said.
This is an advanced use of quotation, and can be a little tricky to
pull off. Look back at your own writing: is there any place where you
pay very close attention to the words of a quotation to make a point?
"Huntin' by Numbers": Looking for Quote Types
An important part of using quotation well is making sure that you
can identify the three different basic kinds of quotation. So we're
gonna try looking for them. Keep in mind that Quote One and Quote Two
sometimes can blur: if the author isn't making the connection clear,
it may look like two Quote Ones. Also keep in mind that Quote Three
is hard to pull off since it takes so much thinking and analysis. In
general, aim for Quote Two. For now, let's see what kinds of quotations
we can find in a sample 101 paper:
With my first reading of "'Indians': Textualism, Morality,
and the Problem of History" and "the Category of Sex"
I saw no connection between the writing of Jane Tompkins and that
of Monique Wittig. But, upon further exploration and analysis I saw
that both essays address a problem essential to human thinking. Both
authors, while dealing with very different issues, in very different
styles, and reaching very different conclusions, explore the limits
that exist when dealing with human knowledge. Acknowledging this,
we are able to use one author to examine the argument that the other
makes. In other words, we can use Tompkins' ideas on history in order
to analyze Wittig's observations on our inability to see differences
that are ingrained in our culture.
In her essay, Tompkins deals with the "what question" of
human thought. By this I mean that Tompkins addresses what people
"see" when they examine history. She argues that all history
is biased by the perspective of the person observing or writing about
an event or time. She argues that people are trapped within their
"historical moment," and therefore are only able to see
an event in one particular light. For instance, when Tompkins presents
the writing of Mary Rowlandson, who wrote first hand testimony on
her treatment by Indians while she was enslaved, she concluded that
Rowlandson "saw what her seventeenth-century English Separatist
background made visible" (137). Tompkins goes on to say, "What
seems to us the peculiar emphases in Rowlandson's relation are not
the result of her having screened out evidence she couldn't handle,
but of her way of constructing the world" (137). Tompkins, with
this statement, is attempting to show the influence that one's background
can have on their views and opinions. This sentence, when reading
through the essay a second time, also seems to foreshadow Tompkins'
ultimate conclusion that we cannot discount someone's opinion because
of their bias.
Wittig, on the other hand, deals with the "why question"
in human thought. By this I mean that Wittig addresses why people
think what they do. She argues that many things are so ingrained in
our culture that it is impossible for us to see them in any other
light. Specifically, Wittig uses this logic to demonstrate that there
are truly no differences between males and females. She is attempting
to show that we only see differences because we accept the existence
of difference as fact. She presents an argument which says: "The
primacy of difference so constitutes our thought that it prevents
turning inward on itself to question itself, no matter how necessary
that may be to apprehend the basis of that which precisely constitutes
it" (2). In other words, Wittig argues that the existence of
difference between man and woman is so embedded in our culture that
it would be "taboo" to question it. She extended her argument,
and in doing so reaches a solution by the completion of her essay.
She argues that women, like the proletarians in Marxist theory, need
to rise up against their oppressor, men in this case.
As I concluded my first reading of both Tompkins and Wittig I began
to examine the ways in which Tompkins' argument could be applied to
the writing of Wittig. It quickly became obvious that the conclusion
that Tompkins draws about human thinking, using a very different topic
than Wittig, can be applied to Wittig's writing as well.
Two main comparisons make the connection between Tompkins and Wittig
seem very obvious. The first comparison deals with what people "see,"
while the second deals with why people "see" that. Early
on in her essay, Tompkins writes that:
It isn't that Miller didn't "see" the black men, in a
literal sense, any more than it's the case when he looked back and
didn't "see" the Indians, in the sense of not realizing
they were there. Rather, it's that neither the Indians nor the black
counted for him, in a fundamental way. (133)
In this quote, Tompkins has argued that Miller, a product of the
American 50's, could not recognize that people of color are really
people. This allowed him to think in a way which excluded, from her
viewpoint, important parts of history. A similar argument can be applied
to Wittig's essay. In truth, it is not that Witting cannot recognize
that there truly are some fundamental "differences" between
men and women, but rather it is that there are no "differences"
which count in her mind. Wittig, in face, argues that "Masculine/feminine,
male/female are categories which serve to conceal the fact that social
difference always belong to an economic, political, and ideological
order" (2). In saying this Wittig has not stated that men and
women are inherently exactly alike, but rather that distinctions between
men and women are unnecessary and discriminatory when applied to the
economic and political world.
Meanwhile, throughout her essay, Tompkins makes clear her belief that
one's background affects the way one sees the world. From this, and
based on the conclusion she draws in her own essay, it is likely that
Tompkins, upon reading Wittig's essay, would comment that Wittig,
like herself and every other person relating a history, is caught
in her "historical moment." By this Tompkins is referring
to the culture in which the person lives, as well as their background,
lifestyle, and political views, among other things. Tompkins would
be likely to present the argument that Wittig's background as a radical,
lesbian, Marxist, French feminist gave her a preconceived notion about
the differences between men and women. For instance, Wittig writes:
The category of sex is the product of heterosexual society that turns
half of the population into sexual beings, for sex is a category which
women cannot be outside of. Wherever they are, whatever they do, they
are seen sexually available to men, and they, breasts, buttocks, costume,
must be visible. They must wear their yellow star, their constant
smile, say and night. (7)
Using Tompkins' essay to respond, "Presumably there was something
in my [Wittig's] background that enabled me to see the problem in
this way. That something, very likely, was post-structuralist theory"
(139). In Wittig's case it is likely that the "something"
was lesbian feminist theory. When Tompkins writes, "I let my
discovery lead me to the conclusion that all facts are theory dependent
because that conclusion was already a thinkable one for me" (139),
it is easy to see how her ideas can be applied to Wittig's discovery
that "there is no sex" (2). In many ways, Wittig's conclusion
was already implanted, even subconsciously, into her mind when she
began to explore this topic.
At this point it should be clear that Tompkins' ideas can have a universal
application. Her ideas can be expanded to allow examination of radical
feminist theory, as is the case with Wittig, or to analyze the New
York Philharmonic's interpretation of Bach or Mozart. However, it
is important to remember, at all times, that Tompkins reaches the
ultimate conclusion that the "effect of bringing perspectivism
to bear on history [ or anything else] was to wipe out completely
the subject matter of history" (139). We must keep this warning
in mind whenever we look to apply Tompkins' argument to history or
any other topic. We must be able to step away from the analysis and
still have a sense of the content of the writing, the music, the art,
or to put it in basic terms, "the stuff." If we can't, it
will become an impossibility to learn, live, or enjoy anything.
So, as you look at your own writing, go through and identify each different
type of quotation. Be suspicious if you find too many type ones; be
very clear about what the connection is each time you use a type two;
be careful and thorough in using a type three.
(Back to introduction)
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