EPT
Profanity in an Essay
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Huanir
United States85 Posts
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rinoh
United States335 Posts
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Huanir
United States85 Posts
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rinoh
United States335 Posts
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
Some profs don't care but this is certainly the safer/more professional approach. No prof is going to say "include the EXACT language including the curse words next time.. -5" | ||
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DeathSpank
United States1029 Posts
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VorcePA
United States1102 Posts
On January 29 2010 18:55 DeathSpank wrote: profanity doesn't belong in any academic paper unless it is inherent of the subject material. It's fine if it's in a quote. But as for your own writing that is not a paraphrase or a quote of someone else, it has no place in formal writing. | ||
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Aim Here
Scotland672 Posts
Would probably be more professional (safer) to edit it out like "blah blah [profanity] blah blah..." or "and so he said that was bull*** Not in a formal academic paper, surely. If you are going to quote something, you'd be better off quoting the exact phrase rather than misquoting or applying any form of censorship. No prof is going to say "include the EXACT language including the curse words next time.. -5" Beg to differ. In your example at the top, writing 'bull***' instead of 'bullshit' might even cause problems in a paper on agriculture. Any sane professor would realise that it's far more important to get the information across accurately than bowdlerise your paper to avoid offending people. It tends to be those shitheads who end up running things in the Real World, not academia, that tend to demand that nobody is potentially offendable by what you say. Also note that, in theory, if the original author was hellbent enough on swearing, censoring someone's quotes like this might land you in trouble with the moral rights provisions in copyright law. In Colorado, the Cleanflicks case involved a film company that was editing out swearing, nudity, sex and violence from films, and a bunch of Hollywood directors sued them and won, because of the derogatory treatment of their work . Mind you, I don't know if anyone's sued over removing profanity in small snippets of text like this(and note that while 'fair use' might allow you to quote such snippets, it doesn't allow you to mangle them to thwart the author's original intent). profanity doesn't belong in any academic paper unless it is inherent of the subject material. I wouldn't go that far. It should be fine if it happens to be part of a quote that makes some useful contribution to whatever point you're making in the essay (but then again, all your quotes should be like that, regardless of profanity). In this case, I'm not totally sure what point you could make by quoting a blogger who said that his bullshit detector started ringing. | ||
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PH
United States6173 Posts
In a quotation, it's really up to you. If you don't edit out profanity, that's completely fine. If you choose to do so, that's completely fine. You're quoting somebody else, that's all there is to it. I've read essays and articles where profanity was used carefully in order to drive home points in a certain way. However, throwing them out in a ranting style without it being satirical or something of the sort is a big no no. An academic setting is a high and formal one. You carefully construct and argue points using support and citations that have been more or less, but always carefully, verified. Generally speaking, profanity has no place in such a context. EDIT I've personally never used profanity in any of my university essays. Then again, I'm a philosophy student, so I really don't have a reason to. In a comedy/satire writing class I'm taking, at the moment, however, I threw around a lot of profanity on a paper, and got an A. | ||
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Aim Here
Scotland672 Posts
I've personally never used profanity in any of my university essays. Then again, I'm a philosophy student, so I really don't have a reason to. Depends what you consider profanity. I have read prudish 19th century English translations of Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Great Philosophers where Diogenes' (of Sinope, i.e. 'Diogenes the Cynic', not Diogenes Laertius the historian) proclivity for inappropriate masturbation was translated as 'doing manual work', making the passages thoroughly confusing to read, until you grasped the euphemisms. | ||
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JohannesH
Finland1364 Posts
On January 29 2010 18:55 {88}iNcontroL wrote: quoting a single sentence with a word like "shit" isn't terrible. Would probably be more professional (safer) to edit it out like "blah blah [profanity] blah blah..." or "and so he said that was bull****" Some profs don't care but this is certainly the safer/more professional approach. No prof is going to say "include the EXACT language including the curse words next time.. -5" I dont think censoring out parts of a text is professional at all... But then again I'm not from US. | ||
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Imagist
Australia484 Posts
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Motiva
United States1774 Posts
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d3_crescentia
United States4053 Posts
For reference, check out this hilarious article that was posted by Sirlin about a professor who did some research in an MMO about playing to win: http://www.sirlin.net/storage/post-images/Myers_PlayPunishment_031508.pdf | ||
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MiniRoman
Canada3953 Posts
On January 29 2010 19:36 VorcePA wrote: It's fine if it's in a quote. But as for your own writing that is not a paraphrase or a quote of someone else, it has no place in formal writing. /signed. If it's a quote its fine but in your own words keep it clean and professional. An article like that should only be used as a secondary source at best. Peer reviewed academic journals and books are the only way to go for primary sources. Make sure that source isn't counting towards a number of required sources for the paper. Unless you're in highschool, then I guess you can source a crazy person in proper format and they will be pleased. | ||
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Always
United States376 Posts
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Chef
10810 Posts
Some professors do have preferences though, so it's worth it to shoot a quick email to ask. If you're doing this assignment last minute, take the safe side. | ||
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3clipse
Canada2555 Posts
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Huanir
United States85 Posts
On January 30 2010 00:51 Always wrote: I don't get it-- if you're an undergrad, then your professor should gladly answer that question for you. Why would you ask on TL where you would likely get a mix of answers? The paper was due before the prof woke up. In traditional undergrad fashion, I didn't allow myself much time to complete it. On January 30 2010 01:39 3clipse wrote: I'd be more concerned about citing a blog than using quoted profanity. Maybe this guy has some sort of credentials and knows what he's talking about, but blogs are notoriously untrustworthy. The nature of the paper limited my academic sources; in 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an article claiming that Google had stopped backing net neutrality. Google responded by calling the article "hyperbolic" and "confused." More importantly to me, however, is the fact that the savetheinternet.com coalition (one of the biggest net neutrality advocates out there) denounced the Journal's piece. Given their status as an open internet advocate, I decided to also use all of the articles/blog entries to which the STI response linked. | ||
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PH
United States6173 Posts
On January 29 2010 20:04 Aim Here wrote: Depends what you consider profanity. I have read prudish 19th century English translations of Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Great Philosophers where Diogenes' (of Sinope, i.e. 'Diogenes the Cynic', not Diogenes Laertius the historian) proclivity for inappropriate masturbation was translated as 'doing manual work', making the passages thoroughly confusing to read, until you grasped the euphemisms. That, nor masturbation, would be considered profanity, in my opinion. | ||
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