Thursday 18 November 2010

"What does SCHOLARLY say, which is not said by INTELLIGENT and RIGHT?"


A.D. Nuttall (2003) answers:

The word, I think, connotes a quality of completeness: at the lowest level, complete literacy (never a colon where a comma should be); complete, though not redundant documentation; complete accuracy even with reference to matters not crucial to the main argument, and, together with all this, a sense that the writer's knowledge of material at the fringe of the thesis is so sound as his or her knowledge of the core material. This seems to me to be the essence of the matter---that although there may be a strong central thesis which rightly absorbs most of the energies available, the writer nevertheless maintains a broad front of total accuracy, a sort of democracy of fact, in which no atom of truth shall be slighted, however humble in relation to the main theme. (emphasis original, p. 191)

Hear, hear. 

3 comments:

  1. "What does SCHOLARLY say,
    which is not said
    by INTELLIGENT and RIGHT?"

    "A.D. Nuttall (2003) answers:
    The word, I think,
    connotes a quality
    of completeness:
    at the lowest level,
    complete literacy...."

    There is no arguing with this
    Complete literacy
    Though in all likelihood
    Ultimately impossible
    Is a laudable goal.

    But how realistic is it
    When we see its opposite
    Taking over our schools
    All over the world

    Do a search on Google
    For: 'student papers for sale'
    And you get page after page
    With 4,280,000 results
    What's a teacher to do?

    Or look at this article
    'The Shadow Scholar'
    In the Chronicle of Higher Education
    "The man who writes
    your students' papers
    tells his story"
    http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/

    If you love school and writing
    Here's a good way to make good money
    You're even helping students
    After all most learning at school
    Has little or no use in business

    And what of the teachers
    Sure they don't like this
    But they aren't stupid
    They can see what's going on
    Barely literate students
    Don't write masterpieces

    But teachers also know
    That they are as caught in the game
    As everyone else in the system
    So they either just let it slide
    Or they focus on the good students

    Still, even good students can cheat
    In this day and age
    Cheating is not the problem
    Getting caught is the problem

    So be as scholarly as you like
    Though it mostly won't pay the bills
    Most schools are cutting back
    Teaching as a profession
    Does not pay that well

    This is another side of:
    "What does SCHOLARLY say,
    which is not said
    by INTELLIGENT and RIGHT?"
    Those with scholarly ambitions
    May want to keep Pragmatism
    And Pay checks in mind too.

    yamabuki

    ReplyDelete
  2. When was this book written? Because I don't think one second that Mr(s) Nuttal's definition of the word reflects the current use of it by the scholars I meet.
    Scholarly does not mean more than "intelligent" or "right". It does not even mean "intelligent" or "right". And some scholarly writings can end up being stupid or wrong.

    But "scholarly" just conflates "intellectual" and "professional". It means "the work of someone whose job is to read, write, speak on, think about, intellectual issues". And it is no more than a synonym for "critical". And a necessary one, I think, since "critical" is such an inadequate word (mostly because many people misunderstand it and think that it can only be used as: "pertaining to negative comments on something").

    ReplyDelete
  3. The word "scholarly" is obviously derived from the same root as the word "school"; hence implying schooled, educated, academic quality. I tend to agree with Nuttall that this often translates to total accuracy and sound knowledge of the subject material, as well as impeccable punctuation.

    ReplyDelete

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