I tend to write here a lot, don’t I? Anyway I’m going to try to not post as frequently so I don’t clog up the timeline.
So a bit of context: I am taking a genocide history course and I will have to write a research paper for it. The paper is the biggest part of the grade and we can choose any topic as long as the professor approves of it. We have to book a “consultation” with him where we present our research topic and question, if he thinks it’s good enough we can go ahead and begin research and writing. The topic I want to write about is what was/is happening in the Donbas. I know many of us have referred to it as a genocide and I figured it’d be a good topic to write about since no one really talks about it. I could choose other issues but I’m almost certain other students will write about them, the Donbas situation is just never brought up enough for my liking.
My real question is: how do I present this to my professor?
I know I want to look into the how and why it happened, and how it’s being talked about now. If that’s makes sense. Yes it’s messy and not elegant enough, I’ll work on it, but I feel very passionate about this, especially with an event that is being hosted at my school today, it’s lit a fire in me. One that’s been there for a while but it’s just gotten hotter, it that makes sense.
I don’t want my professor to think my paper is going to be a weird defence of Putin or whatever, he seems quite set in stone on his position of the war so I’m trying to tread lightly without sacrificing my principles. All I’m asking is help in my wording as I don’t know how to say this without potentially screwing myself over. I think I low-key have to convince him that it was/is a genocide.
First I want to apologize for my incredibly late response. I have three midterms this week and spent my time studying and dying lol. I finished two and have one more tomorrow, my fourth is next week so not nearly as bad. Okay, with that out of the way I just wanted to thank you so much for all of this, you really did not need to go this hard! This is more than I could ever ask for! I honestly don’t know what to say. The UN documents and such do work well as primary sources, documentaries work as well as long as I’m not quoting an academic, second language sources are good too but only as primary sources. Secondary sources, according to my professor, are made by academic institutions/people. First hand accounts and interviews work (I mean, for our holodomor week we’re required to watch interviews with people who lived through it, so if they can use that I can use interviews with people in the Donbas). I saw recently that the ICJ was going to see a case about Ukraine being pissed about Russia claiming they were committing genocidal acts in the east so I know the results of that will help with my paper. I know I will have to be very careful with my wording when I finally start writing, though I have to admit its hard to reign in my annoyances and other feelings. Anyway, enough with my rambling, again thank you so much for this, I have it saved and it really does help in general and for when I do more searches on my own (so many resources I wasn’t aware of!).
No worries about the delay! You’re right to focus on your midterms. Glad to be of help. It’s an interesting question and once I got it in my head, I had to have a look for myself 😁
One more thing (not necessarily the ‘final’ thing as I’m in no rush to draw this to a close), which I wouldn’t be surprised if you already know. It’s a trick to help with careful wording: don’t make too much of each source. By this I mean, present the source as accurately as you can, as evidence only of whatever it can evidence. It’s easy to see a source as providing a lot more evidence than it actually does when you’re in the flow and seeing all these dots connect. Be critical of the sources that support the argument that you want to make. You can challenge your sources with your own arguments or with arguments that others have made (crediting and being critical of those sources, too). That way, when you make your potentially controversial argument, it’s harder to accuse you of e.g. cherry picking or lack of criticism or unfounded bias, etc. I mean, they may try anyway, but you’ve done what you can.
Thank you, again I’m late since I had one last midterm (political science) but I’m back. This is all very helpful, most of your comments I end up saving because they’re always great and I want to make sure I have easy access to them for reference. I guess I’ll have to keep reminding myself to be critical, sometimes I get “too into it” when writing that I can come across as flippant, annoyed/frustrated, or cynical. I think the language I use is… different from the typical academic paper (I don’t use cuss words but I have made “jokes,” like lowkey making fun of Salazar and the mafia in my last paper) and I’ll need to be careful especially with this paper, it being about genocide and all. I like to think I’m good at managing my language when it comes to certain people (those in power vs those not) and situations but I know I’ll need to be careful. Thankfully I have quite a bit of time to actually write it (this paper is due in April) and fix my language.