Dear Reader,
As a university student at UBC I have often heard my classmates say recently that they feel like they are drowning in a never-ending workload that just keeps piling up leading up to the end of the term. So many of us, myself included, seem to reach a point when we ask ourselves: Why am I doing this? For today’s blog post I will address this question about the purpose of academia and why pursuing a university degree is essential beyond the individual. Since my last blog post, our ASTU course have continued to pursue our readings in Giltrow’s guide to “Academic Writing” and diving into new ideas and conceptions of what academic writing really incorporates. One aspect that really stood out to me when was the concept of about common and uncommon knowledge explored in chapter 10.
In this chapter Giltrow distinguishes between the terms common and uncommon knowledge as two terms used to explain the difference between colloquial everyday language and academia. That is to say, what makes academic writing different from the way we normally use language and why does this difference exist? When speaking of scholarly writing the public often tends to dismiss it, as Giltrow puts it, being “overly complex”. Before reading this specific chapter I also had a tendency to sometimes question the purpose of complex language associated with scholarly writing. For me, it seemed exclusive and a form strategically excluding individuals who lacked the academic background to access the information scholarly articles presented. However, Giltrow rejects these popular assumptions by illustrating how a complexity of language is interconnected with a complexity of ideas and understanding. This complexity and deeper analysis of something is what Giltrow refers to as uncommon knowledge, which is necessary for academic research.
When discussing this during our ASTU class, one of my classmates used the metaphor of walking up the stairs to his house as another way of thinking about this concept. He was saying that common knowledge would be that you know that you are walking up some stairs, whereas when applying uncommon knowledge you would start looking at less evident aspects such as how many stairs there are or when the stair were built. What fascinates me is this idea of uncommon knowledge putting aspects into question. What do we actually know, and if we do, how do we know it? Unfortunately, I do still believe that there is an issue of scholarly language being exclusive to an academic audience, as it may enlarge the gap between people’s understanding of knowledge.
Interestingly, this issue of uncommon versus common knowledge seems to me as utterly relevant in the light of current events. After what I consider a deeply disturbing U.S presidential election, I started to apply Giltrow’s thinking about the importance of uncommon knowledge when trying to address why someone like Trump could gain peoples support. As many journalists have already identified, such as Maggie Haberman in her article in the New York Times, there appears that the American public addresses knowledge about issues they perceive differently than the academic community does. I believe that the failure to question Trump’s usage of broad generalizations and negative stereotyping of minority groups lies in the fact that is was to a large extent “common knowledge” among rural Americans. The British comedian Jonathan Pie in a video interestingly portrayed this idea where he explains how the American educated liberals are to blame for the outcome of the election. Pie says that the incapacity of the left to provide this rational dismantling of Trump’s claims, or as Giltrow would put it; turning it into uncommon knowledge, is essentially why Trump won. Indeed, one essential feature of uncommon knowledge is this idea of active questioning, which can only be done when open for a comparison of diverging perspectives. Sadly, I believe that the American political sphere failed to both allow different opinions to form a common ground and to actively question the nature of American society holistically.
To conclude, Giltrow’s theoretical exploration of the importance of scholarly writing, or rather the academic fashion of constructing knowledge, is utterly insightful when looking at current knowledge gaps. Indeed, it brings a broader understanding of the issues our society will face when uncommon knowledge is neglected.
On that note, keep that studying going! 🙂
Picture taken from: http://www.christianpost.com/buzzvine/look-at-that-face-10-great-donald-trump-photos-145379/
