a question for teachers in colleges and universities and people in publishing:


--I cannot find anything in the Chicago Manual of Style or the MLA Style Guide (or through Google) that deals with the use of the n-word in written quotations from literature (in academic papers written by students). My position has always been that one quotes verbatim provided the quotation is essential to the argument. I am very uncomfortable with students using "n****r" (which they do) or using brackets or ellipsis to avoid typing out the word in a quotation from Twain or any other writer. I tell them that if they object to typing out the word in their papers, they may summarize the content of the quotation in their own words, but if the quotation is essential to what they are arguing, they need to type the passage as it actually appears in the text.


A search for the subject online just shows articles and blogs and so on dealing with the use of the word in speech, but not in academic writing.


I'm curious about how others deal with this.


Barbara



Barbara Ladd
Professor of English
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia 30322
tel: 404 727-7998
fax: 404 727-2605
Office hours:  Mondays and Wednesdays 10-11 a.m.; and by appointment.





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