Right now, no one on campus feels well. If it's not H1N1, it's a cold, or bronchitis, or para influenza, or mean little headaches. All the illness may be the result of the late-semester realization that we all have more papers to write than we have brains to create them with.
One friend, also an English major, has toted up his assigned pages: he needs to write 70 altogether before the middle of December. Unless I'm not aware of some surprise lurking in a syllabus, I have about 35 pages due soon -- but I'm only in my junior year.
Writing an argumentative research thesis is a heck of a lot different from writing radio or print news or magazine articles. For one thing, one actually has to take a side -- which feels totally unnatural after all those years of emulating Cronkite and Murrow at their best. It feels wrong to take a stand and argue for it out in public, without presenting the argument for the other side in its entirety. Murrow and Cronkite were most famous for the times when they spoke out and stepped away from the neutrality of the good reporter; their objections to the Viet Nam War and the McCarthy era persecutions of liberals had weight because they had been trusted neutral but watchful observers throughout their careers. Those were the reporters I wanted to emulate in my small-town way. As they say in Philosophy classes, if you must take inspiration outside yourself, emulate the highest model.
And choose a deserving target.
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