Cathy's right, I think; the "academic essay" (and she's also right that it's not a homogenous genre) is "an excuse to get at these other issues." What I still wonder is why it's so universal to create situations in which the writing we use to get at other things has to be so entirely without authentic, intrinsic purposes, writing written to demonstrate knowledge or ability rather than to persuade, amuse, engage, inform, etc. And I wonder whether the fact that class essays are so rhetorically peculiar makes it harder to get at things like, in Cathy's list, > --a rhetorical approach to writing and reading > --an analytical attitude to language. She says, > It's struck me for some time that the academic essay is only a > device to get at these kinds of far more important issues. It's > like a public relations effort. Students often believe that > they need to write in the genre of the academic essay. And it's not only true that they believe it, it's true that they need to. But I'm not convinced that's a good thing, or that it's unavoidable. -- Russ __|~_ Russell A. Hunt __|~_)_ __)_|~_ Aquinas Chair St. Thomas University )_ __)_|_)__ __) PHONE: (506) 452-0424 Fredericton, New Brunswick | )____) | FAX: (506) 450-9615 E3B 5G3 CANADA ___|____|____|____/ [log in to unmask] \ / ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.StThomasU.ca/hunt/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~