Discovering Digital Scholarship

I’ve been writing for the college student and faculty audience for about 10 years now. There is a lot of idea crafting, analyzing minute details, and drawing conclusions from multiple sources and research. Writing in this style is almost the opposite of what World History Commons requires. WHC was built to be freely accessed by educators and students alike, and it was quickly made clear to me that neither has enough free time to read my carefully laid out arguments and testing theses. Both need to understand a specific topic quickly, especially educators in the hours and days before their scheduled lesson on a topic. Even though I was speaking to college-educated users, writing in a tone I use for college-educated coworkers was no longer seen as insightful and well-researched — now, it was cumbersome, unneeded, and intrusive. Plainly, I assumed I would need to write for an educational audience as an educated author when, in fact, statements that are simple and direct are the more useful path.

I’m working through this, even now. I still get told (nicely) by my supervisor to get to the point of my explanation, that flowery introduction paragraphs are unnecessary, and that sometimes I don’t need to draw conclusions for my readers. Teachers already know what they’re teaching — what they come to WHC for is supplementary information, not a proven hypothesis. What students need is a basic understanding of a subject.

I don’t know what to expect going forward. I have always had a fairly good idea of what work needs to be done, but now I’m realizing who the work is being done for. From my fourth grade Social Studies teacher who had us draw a diagram of an Iroquois longhouse on a photocopy of a worksheet that must have been copied dozens of times, to today’s new teachers who could use guidance and inspiration from our work.