"Academic Reading & Writing"- A workshop by Dr. Swetha Antony.

Dr. Swetha Antony gave a lecture on "Academic Reading & Writing". Here, are the notes of the session in which Prof. discussed and highlighted many points.

(Read the same taking her as speaker)

• We need to consider this fact that every researcher is coming from some context, cultural background etc. Situatedness and knowledge of a researcher intertwined with environmental, social and cultural factors directly or indirectly shapes his/her ideas.

• When you pick a text, engage yourself with some questions like:

1. Can you identify the text, whether it is a literary or non-literary?

2. Under what genre you can categorize it? What are the parameters you will use?

3. Are you able to connect or relate with this text?

4. Is the text fit to engage with academically?

• Prof. showed some samples and explained how and using what methodologies, these samples can be taken into consideration. (You can click on the images of the samples in order to see them more clearly and read the content mentioned in them)

Sample 1: This is a large scale painting by Richard Bell. How would you use this as a text? Can it be used as a text for academic writing?

Sample 2: This is a kind of poem describing the process of making a Dosa, written by Madhu Raghvendra. Would you call it literary or non-literary? It is a kind of poem, so we consider it under literary text. The one who has written this, is he a poet or a visual artist? Would you use this as a primary text for your research?

Sample 3: This is an excerpt from "The Great Indian Tee and Snakes" written by Kritika Pandey. Can you identify the context? Is this a literary text? Here, we can see that there is a narrative, descriptive & story telling style; there is a plot, there are characters; there is time, place and setting (a middle class setting). How do you identify- time, place & setting? You unknowingly use your existing knowledge of Indian cuisine, your understanding of the same & your background in order to contextualize this text. All these factors have helped you. Would you use this as an academic text? Prof. Antony argues that try to interpret the text you read based on your own understanding, experiences, knowledge & background.

Sample 4: This is an excerpt from "Remembrance of Things Past", a novel written by Marcel Proust, discussing food stuff. What is the role of food in academic research? Can food be beyond materiality? What methodology you would apply? Textual analysis and methodologies give you questions and problems. Methodological intervention involve memory studies, diasporic studies etc. that could be used to talk about such texts.

Sample 5: This is a journalistic piece called "Indian Thought: Bringing the Flavors of Calcutta to Rhode Island in a Suitcase" written by Jhumpa Lahiri and published in "Food & Wine" magazine. You have to look out for indicators, clues to understand the context.

Sample 6: This is an excerpt of an interview with Kritika Pandey. Here, two generations are being represented. Indicators like Potluck in the US must be considered for contextualization.

Sample 7: It is a piece of poetry; the genre is 'imagism'. Indicators like Glasgow make it clear that the piece is not talking about India; green chutney metaphorically indicates home sickness. Textual analysis and methodologies including taking help from diasporic studies may help that further deal with identity crisis etc. Anita Mannur's essay help you to understand diasporic studies. Memories are different for individuals. We need to know the materiality and metaphoric of it.

Sample 8: This is an excerpt from an essay titled "The Changing Popular Culture of Indian Food" written by Ashis Nandy. Would you call it a academic text? Here, the presence of citation indicates that it is a academic text. Can you see this for literary analysis to write research? You can use all these texts as primary and secondary as well. And essays are always considered as primary source.

Sample 9(A): It is a part of sequential art, required some kind of methodological intervention different from the general one.

Sample 9(B): This sample consists of an anime by 'Studio Ghibli' and 'Manga' (comic or graphic novel) showing Japanese literary & cultural context. These are two of the most universally recognized forms of contemporary mass culture. Because they tell stories through visual imagery, they vault over language barriers. You have to be aware of different cultures while dealing with texts of different areas and different genres.

Sample 10: Can we work on memes? Yes, you can take any approach in research but:

-you should be aware of from where the text is coming from.

-what kind of text it is in which you are researching upon.

-you should be aware of the culture.

-consider the historical context as well.

-you must be knowing about the features of the genre.

-bring methodological intervention from other disciplines as well.

• Beware of misinformation available on the internet. You cannot trust such materials. This is the problem with post-modernism: you are reproducing without mentioning the origin. Working on the bibliography must be going on; any article or book you find relevant for your research must be taken into consideration.

This session was a part of 'Academic Writing Workshop' which was conducted online by English Literary Society, Zakir Husain College (Evening), University of Delhi on 15-03-24.

Dr. Swetha Antony is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi.