Know What I'm Sayin'?

Having an opinion is one of the most important aspects of writing at the collegiate and post-graduate levels. In fact, incorporating your opinion into the text of your essays is probably the most important thing you will receive from your education. The key to an opinion, however, is to make it sound like a "fact" instead of an "opinion." What? C'mon, you've got to be kidding, right lady? I bet that's what you're saying in your head right now.

However, composition is about communication. You are composing your thoughts in order to share them with the world. The goal of any good writer should be to express thoughts in order to share an opinion. Although facts are important, since they help you to support your own thoughts, your thoughts are the key to a good essay. Parroting back to a reader what s/he has already told you shows excellent skills. Skills such as listening, incorporating information, and, well, regurgitating. However, these are not the skills of analysis that help you in your future.

Ok, you're asking right now. If you're so smart, lady, how do I give an "opinion" without it being an "opinion", huh? The key is to incorporate your thoughts in a way that makes them seem assertive and powerful. "Yeah, but how do I DO that?" Accomplishing this goal is the more difficult task. However, as with any other type of skill, practice helps you to get this to work for you rather than against you.

So, normally, students write things like, "In my opinion, the author's point proves my thesis because it's right." The fact that you've incorporated the words "in my opinion" makes this an arguable statement. If you say, more forcefully, "The author's point proves my point because it is right" takes you out of the essay yet states the same thought.

Take for example, the following:


I think that social networks have become not just a way for teens to express themselves, but it has become a way for teens to create a sense of identity through the use of written language. As danah boyd writes in her essay, "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites,"Social norms emerge out of situational definitions, as people learn to read cues from the environment and the people present to understand what is appropriate behavior. Learning how to manage impressions is a critical social skill that is honed through experience" (11). For example, when I log on to my page to see what my friends are doing, I understand that friends with status updates that are unhappy means that they are hoping that I will post to their Walls and give them online love and support. In doing this, I think that we are connecting in a way that we were unable to connect in person since I cannot be with my friends at all times. Since I know that I can give support to my friends even when we are not physically together, I know that I can still be a good friend in a way, even though I cannot always talk to my friends.Writing is now a chance for teens to be able to take time to be together even when they cannot always be in the same place. In fact, this gives youth a chance to use writing to help one another and helps them negotiate public life by showing their friends, through written communication, exactly how they feel.

This statement expresses a strong opinion using an individual experience. While the thoughts may be good, people without the same experiences may not agree and thus this argument, even with its strong points, fails. The uses of "I understand" and "since I know" signal that this is an individual opinion that may or may not be valid for all people. This is a definite opinion, but it is a personal opinion based on a personal experience.

OK, this is a good starting point. However, in academic writing, expressing an opinion must be more sophisticated. When an essay topic alludes to an argument, that argument should be based on some kind of opinion. Regardless of whether the topic is something that interests you, you must have some personal thoughts on the topic. So, let's look at some signals within writing that allow you to express your thoughts in a way that is sophisticated while still being able to communicate the heart of your beliefs and feelings on the topic.

1) Stay in the third person. Most of the time, when teachers try to keep "opinions" out of statements, they want students to stay in the third person (they, them, people, or other nouns/pronouns of this genre) instead of the first person (I/me/we/us) or second person (you). Why is this? First of all, the use of first and second person sounds really immature. Fine, that's a style issue. However, more importantly, first person creates a sense of an individual's personal experience. Personal experience is something that is easily arguable. Sure, that shirt looks great on your friend. Sure, your friend did not like that new show on TV. These are those friends' personal experiences. YOUR individual experience may not be the same. That shirt may look horrible on you. That show may have been your favorite ever. By inserting yourself into the essay, you are giving the reader an automatic reason to tune out to your thoughts. For example, in the above example, the author writes, "For example, when I log on to my page to see what my friends are doing, I understand that friends with status updates that are unhappy means that they are hoping that I will post to their Walls and give them online love and support." A better way to write this would be to generalize the statement to incorporate multiple experiences so that there is greater support for the point. In other words, "For example, when teens log onto their pages to see what their friends are doing, they understand that friends with status updates that are unhappy means that these friends are hoping people will post to their Walls and give them online love and support." In generalizing this statement, the sentiment stays the same; however, the generalization strengthens the point. This is because when the experience is based on a general cultural experience, there is an implied majority lending support to the statement. It becomes not just the experience of the individual writing but the experience of many people who have the same technology. Thus, there is a certain "strength" in the implied numbers. Note, however, that the thought is exactly the same.

2) Word choice: Sure, words have definitions, denotations, if you will. A denotation is the dictionary definition of a word. Sometimes, however, words have connotations. Simply using a word with a positive or negative connotation can change the viewpoint being expressed while still keeping the essay in the "not personally arguable" category. For example, in the above example, the author wrote, "Since I know that I can give support to my friends even when we are not physically together, I know that I can still be a good friend in a way, even though I cannot always talk to my friends." Ok, so, how do we work on changing this? After we take out all the first person in the statement, it still would say, "Since teens know that they can give support to their friends even when they are not physically together, they know that they can still be a good friend in a way, even though the friends are not always speaking to one another." Ok, so, this becomes less arguable. However, what's the big deal here? Let's see what words can be tweaked to imply a positive opinion. "Since" is simply an indicator of time or space. So, let's try to find a way to rewrite this in a way that casts less of a statement and more of an opinion. "Wanting to give support to friends can be emotionally difficult when teens are not able to physically be with their friends." By changing this to incorporate the word "difficult", we have already begun to incorporate an opinion. Teens want to be good friends. This is hard when they cannot be together. Anything that is difficult or hard is automatically triggered to be a negative. Let's move on then, "By posting support to their friends online, they are still giving their friends the needed and requested emotional support. This writing gives teens a way to strengthen emotional friendships." OK, this totally changes the implied connotation behind the previous statement and starts to form an opinion by the reader. The phrase "the needed and requested emotional support" implies within its language choice the idea that the original unhappy friend is able to obtain his/her goal. In fact, the final statement "strengthen emotional relationships" is the final nail in this coffin by promoting the idea of the positive impact of wall posts. "Strengthen" is generally a positive connotation. "Emotional relationships" are generally considered important and positive to emotional health. Therefore, the term "strengthen emotional relationships" has a positive connotation and shows a positive spin on the idea of posting on friends' walls in a way the previous statement did not.

3) Find evidence that either supports your point in a positive way or evidence that you can explain as being negative to show why your point is correct. For example, the above paragraph notes, "Social norms emerge out of situational definitions, as people learn to read cues from the environment and the people present to understand what is appropriate behavior. Learning how to manage impressions is a critical social skill that is honed through experience" (boyd 11). The first part of this quote is fairly unbiased. The second part, however, states that these skills are "critical". In order to incorporate an opinion, the author should want to focus on the positive aspect that this word implies. When something is critical, it means it is necessary, important, and generally in its importance, positive. For example, you would never say that it is "critical" to text friends while driving. That would imply that safety is less important than texting. Therefore, a better way to write this part of the paragraph would be, "Social norms emerge out of situational definitions, as people learn to read cues from the environment and the people present to understand what is appropriate behavior. Learning how to manage impressions is a critical social skill that is honed through experience" (11). The importance of these skills add to the important manner through which teens use writing to help learn about social skills and create an identity for themselves." This is a simple sentence. However, once again, this sentence explains why the quote sheds a positive light on the original statement about how social networks help students establish identity. Now, if the writer disagreed with boyd, a better way to introduce the quote would be to write, "Although boyd argues." The use of the words "although" and "argues" imply that there is an upcoming "but." This "but" is the fact that these are disprovable points. In other words, the writer would be setting the quote up to be considered incorrect and then set up as something negative. Therefore, the writer would still be incorporating an opinion within the paper but would still be doing it in a sophisticated way.

So, now let's rewrite the above paragraph based on some of these key elements.

Social networks have become not just a way for teens to express themselves, but it has become a way for teens to create a sense of identity through the use of written language. As danah boyd writes in her essay, "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites,"Social norms emerge out of situational definitions, as people learn to read cues from the environment and the people present to understand what is appropriate behavior. Learning how to manage impressions is a critical social skill that is honed through experience" (11). The importance of these skills add to the important manner through which teens use writing to help learn about social skills and create an identity for themselves. For example, when teens log onto their pages to see what their friends are doing, they understand that friends with status updates that are unhappy means that these friends are hoping people will post to their Walls and give them online love and support. By posting support to their friends online, they are still giving their friends the needed and requested emotional support. This writing gives teens a way to strengthen emotional friendships. Writing is now a chance for teens to be able to take time to be together even when they cannot always be in the same place. In fact, this gives youth a chance to use writing to help one another and helps them negotiate public life by showing their friends, through written communication, exactly how they feel.

Now, if you compare the two paragraphs, the language of both is equally simple. There are no super large words here. The second one, however, sounds much more adult and sophisticated. In addition, this paragraph seems less like a personal experience proving a personal opinion and more like a statement of fact that is difficult to argue against. In fact, the words in the second paragraph imply that social networks are positive, accentuates these positive implications, and gives the reader a sense of the support that the writer has an established opinion on this topic.

Now, the next time someone asks you for an opinion, why don't you tell them. Know what I'm sayin'?