我相信我所偏好的条理清晰和直截了当之类的特征同样植根于社会学的符号互动的传统。
这些症状是具有魔力的仪式。
人们进行这类仪式来影响那些他们觉得没有理性手段可以控制其进程的结果。Malinowski, 1948, p 25-36.
这门课强调的不是写作,而是编辑和改写。
第二节课:我们一起花了3个小时来进行改写
我的手稿在出版之前一般都熬改写8到10遍。
这个练习带来好几个结果。学生们心力交瘁,他们以前从来没有花费过这么多时间、如此细致地看一篇文章,也没有想过有人会在这么一件事情上花这么多时间。
大学生没有时间来改写,因为它们经常是同时有好几篇论文要赶着交上去。
我说他们真的可以在一开始随便写什么,无论什么样的初稿,不管有多么粗糙和混乱,最终都可以将它修改成像样的东西。
我们花了不少气力才找到一个愿意尝试这样一个冒险过程(贡献自己的初稿让大家一起修改)的人。
写作不是一蹴而就的,它可以分为几个阶段,每一个阶段都有着各自定义的优秀的标准。
当你坐下来写作的时候,已经做出了很多选择,但你可能并不知道它们是些什么。
如果你在研究的早期阶段就开始写作——比如,在你掌握了所有数据之前——你能够更快地清理自己的思路。
一个实验:我提议大家一起就一个我们都知道的题目写一篇文章:社会学写作中的问题。我们采用一种古老的游戏形式,轮流来决定论文的下一句改写什么。
“我并不很确定有什么规则主导着我的编辑行为,我只是根据耳朵进行编辑。”
问题:我们的文章为什么写得很啰嗦,也很有学究气?
问题:文雅的写作究竟是指什么?为什么学究气的写作方式更文雅?
学术精英主义:在一个高度等级化的机构里一个下级人士的看法。
坦克式的论文:密集的细节知识把读者轰晕了头,他们感觉只能接受作者的观点。
权威性只对不熟悉这个领域的读者起作用。
绝大多数学校把学术研究和教学分开的做法,让学生逐渐变得对这个过程(重写和编辑)一无所知。
埃弗雷特·休斯(Everett Hughes): 把引言部分放到最后来写!
导语是用来介绍的。你怎么能去介绍那些你还没写出来的东西呢?
练习:列出100个论文题目
记住:
大多数人会发现:一直说下去并且在录音版本上进行修改更为容易些。
先从最容易的做起:
使用思维导图或逻辑流程图对整理想法是有用的!
小老虎丹尼尔:when we do something new, let's talk about what we do!
写八股文不是那么机械的,同样需要创造力!
问题:为什么不在第一次修改的时候就改好呢?
To begin, consider the following paragraph, which discusses the strategy of describing social groups through photographic portraits of their members:
Whatever part they [photographers] let stand for the person, the strategy implies a theory and a method. The theory is a simple one, but it is important to make its steps explicit, so that we can see how it works. The theory is that the life a person has lived, its good times and bad, leaves its marks. Someone who has lived a happy life will have a face that shows that. Someone who has managed to maintain their human dignity in the face of trouble will have a face that shows that. . .. This is a daring strategy, because it makes the little that the photograph does contain carry an enormous weight. We must, if the theory is to work and help us to produce effective images, choose faces, details of them, and moments in their history which, recorded on film and printed on paper, allow viewers to infer everything else they are interested in. Viewers, that is, look at the lines on a face and infer from them a life spent in hard work in the sun.
The theory is a simple one, but it is important to make its steps explicit, so that we can see how it works.
I still wasn't happy. The sentence had three clauses which were just strung together. If I can rearrange a sentence so that its organization displays and thus reinforces the connections I am describing, I do.
Now look at the fourth sentence. Someone who has managed to maintain their human dignity in the face of trouble will have a face that shows that. . ..
Finally, consider the sentence about lines on a face: "Viewers, that is, look at the lines on a face and infer from them a life spent in hard work in the sun."
Whatever part a photographer chooses to stand for the person, he or she is employing a strategy that relies on a theory and a method. This strategy depends on the assumption that the experiences of life are recorded in faces, that the life a person has lived leaves physical marks.
Photographers, accordingly, choose faces, details of faces, and moments in their histories which, recorded on film and printed on paper, allow viewers to deduce what they don't see but want to know about. Portraits often contain a wealth of detail, so that careful study allows us to make complex and subtle readings of the character of the person and of the life-in-society of that person. Looking at the lines on a face, viewers may conclude that that these were baked in during a life of hard work in the sun. From these same lines, they can infer wisdom produced by hard work and age or, alternatively, senility and decay. To make any of these conclusions, a viewer must bring to bear on the image one of several possible theories of facial lines.
你飞快的毫不在意地写下第一版草稿,因为你知道自己随后会很挑剔。
我1951年在芝加哥大学获得哲学博士学位,那年23岁。只找到一个研究大麻使用的工作。圣诞节期间,有轨电车翻到在一辆小汽车上。小汽车司机是芝加哥大学社会科学2这门课的教师之一,他们亟需找人替代。认识了马克·本尼(Mark Benney)
马克说:我想你只能按照那种可笑的风格来写!
休斯在凌晨四点写编辑评语给我“臣服!陈腐!陈腐!
当编辑觉得一篇写作低劣、组织糟糕的文章还值得施加一些特别的努力时,他们不会去选择另一篇。
暑期快结束前的三周,我会有模糊的不安,
有些论文从未能够完成,但我痛恨浪费自己所写的任何东西,从不放弃希望,甚至从不放弃那些没有人喜欢的片段。
收到朋友或编辑的否定性意见:
在艺术界这本书真正完成之前,我曾经两次以为万事大吉了。
当你在一个工作卡住的时候,你可以转向另外一个,总是在做显得最容易的事情。
社会互动和符号互动有助于提升效率。
写不下去的标准解决办法:
朋友——————审稿人——————公众
我没有耐性、渴望经常性的回报、对其他人将如何回应我所说的话充满了好奇
思想生活是对同一个话题感兴趣的人们之间的对话。
你的研究一旦完成,就应该把它写出来,并通过发表来让它加入这种对话。
在引经据典的棋局中对自己的位置要有自知之明。
原创性是记性不好的产物。
经典著作:
”Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none. “
常规科学的目的不在于事实和理论的新颖性,当它取得成功时,也无新颖的发现可言。
做不出东西的时候,默念此库恩魔咒50遍,可保精神正常,避免堕入魔道。
学者必须说出一些新的想法,并将它们和别人已经说过的联系起来。
Michael Schudson: 把研究和文献联系起来,用那些已经被接受的理论,得出看似不可能的结论。
你不需要从头开始创造所有的内容
文献的坏处是对其关注太多可能会毁了你自己的论述。
当你感觉无法用自己的语言来表达意思时,你应该警惕自己不要被文献压垮了。
电脑的真正优越之处在于它克服了写作的物理阻力!
写于1986年
续结语 2007年
当我刚成为社会学家时,我曾对自己说:如果教学和科研成为麻烦,大不了我再回到酒吧里靠弹钢琴赚钱。
你可以发表几乎任何文章,只要你愿意在旗舰刊物之外的地方发表它。
我不觉得自己能给大家带来灵感,但在最后我会试着带给大家一些希望。祝你们好远。