nonfiction vs academic case study

I identify a lot with the teacher who wrote the nonfiction piece, "Lorraine's Study," in needing to convince students (especially those who are trying to write personal essays!) of the power of scene and detail. The piece showed an interesting tension between two truths; my favorite part was how the teacher thought academic writing is "wordy and tedious" while the student thought creative writing is "wordy and frivolous." Tedious vs. frivolous is such a good encapsulation of that age-old debate between academics and creatives! Also, perhaps because of the close interaction between Lorraine and her tutor, Lorraine's personality was much more apparent than the personalities of the people in the more academic studies.

I do think anecdotal nonfiction case studies might work better for describing individual experiences in the writing center, but would be less effective and authoritative for describing trends, patterns, or multiple people. This case study in particular really delved into the psychology of Lorraine wanting to harness academic language as a power/political move, but this information was gathered more through casual conversation than anything a researcher might ask (would a researcher out to study pros and cons of academic vs. creative writing even turn to politics?).

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