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.
"What does SCHOLARLY say,
ReplyDeletewhich 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
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.
ReplyDeleteScholarly 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").
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.
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