How can you write with authority?

Your 'voice' comes across to your reader in the way you handle your material:

The confidence with which you set out your stall in your introduction - don't be afraid to get stuck in from the beginning and reference key authors, set opposing or developing perspectives against one another, justify the significance of your chosen topic and the reliability of your methodological approach, and state your aim clearly from the start
The ease with which you interpret and analyse concepts, theories and debates you have selected from the literature and incorporate apt quotation or telling statistics to support your argument
Expression of the validity of your conclusions - a clear statement of what you have achieved and what this all means in the wider field of your module.

Here we focus on your use of sources, and how to integrate them into your essay to support your argument, rather than substutute for it.

Activity

One common acronym given by writing tutors to explain how to refer to your sources while maintaining your own voice is 'PEAL' (Point, Evidence, Analysis, Link), and its variants (PQR - Point, Quote, Response etc.). This is useful, if not used mechanically, but a more sophisticated approach can be taken if you think about what your reader needs in order to be convinced by your argument.

Step 1

Read these first few paragraphs from a draft essay that one Masters student brought to an AWAS tutorial. It will probably not be an example from your own discipline area, but nevertheless, the content is not too hard to follow if you are interested in theatre and the performing arts and the notion of a 'national culture'.

Click here for the text

The Emergence of the Role of the Dramaturg in America

In 1908 the appointment of the first literary manager in the world was announced in the New Theatre in New York – John Corbin.[1] Trencsényi notes how the aims of the theatre were similar to national theatres in other countries that wanted to turn away from commercial theatre to develop work ‘of artistic excellence relevant to the nation’.[2] The appointment of a dramaturg or a literary manager is linked with the idea of creating new work to represent the nation. Corbin’s role was to actively seek new work, and to encourage writers by offering commissions.[3] The offering of commissions was important as it depicted a progressive step towards supporting writers to produce new work.

A major milestone in the development of the dramaturg occurred in the 1960s in the regional theatre movement where the country observed ‘a renewed interest in the canon and a vigorous advocacy of a new American repertoire’.[4] The regional theatre movement aimed to ‘foster resident professional theatre companies in cities, towns and communities across the nation’.[5] The movement wanted to improve accessibility to theatre nationwide while achieving a professional standard of work.

Various critics argue over different events that sparked the regional theatre movement. Anne Cattaneo cites Arthur Ballet and his Office of Advanced Drama Research (OADR) at the University of Minnesota as ‘the spark’ that influenced the movement.[6] Ballet ‘tirelessly read and recommended new American plays’ to theatre colleagues all over the country which Cattaneo describes as ‘a sort of national dramaturgy office’.[7] Meanwhile, other critics contend that the main person that can claim the pioneering role of the regional theatre movement is Margo Jones. Jones, a theatre director, wrote an influential book entitled Theatre in the Round and was responsible for establishing Theatre ’47 in 1947 in Dallas, Texas.[8] She had received a Rockefeller Foundation grant ‘to pursue her dream of a permanent, professional, repertory in Dallas, Texas, concurrently devoted to showcasing the classics and the best new scripts available’ and in the first three years of her new theatre they presented eighteen new scripts and eleven classics.[9]

Following in Jones’ footsteps were Nina Vance and Zelda Fichandler. Vance was an assistant to Jones who shared her enthusiasm for theatre-in-the-round and formed the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas in November 1947.[10] Fichandler, known as ‘the second great disciple’ of Jones, founded the Arena Stage in Washington DC in 1950 with her husband Thomas and theatre professor Edward Magnum.[11] These examples are female directors who pioneered the way for regional repertory theatre by successfully starting up these theatres and presenting mixed repertoires of new and classical work. Martha LoMonaco cites that there were also male influences in the early days of the regional theatre movement – Jules Irving and Herbert Blau, originally from New York, launched The Actor’s Workshop in 1952 in San Francisco.[12] Their aim was ‘to create a space for individuals to work and experiment […] in a permanent community of dedicated ensemble players’.[13] This example demonstrates theatre-makers moving out of the city where Broadway was a dominant feature to create theatre elsewhere in the country and to have a space to experiment.

Note

Footnotes omitted for the sake of space! You can download the document here:

The Emergence of the Role of the Dramaturg in America (1)-1.docx

Moving on

An annotated version of this text