Ghost

Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)

I selected “other.”

Text box popped up. Please elaborate!

Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment

Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.

Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”

Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.

I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.

If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.

When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.

It’s surprisingly easy to come up with an incredibly cool plot and characters without giving the characters enough motivation to make it actually compelling enough to read or even write. If you have a cool af idea that you somehow just can’t bring yourself to write, ask yourself what the main character wants, and how is that driving their decisions?

They need to want it so bad that it makes them look stupid. They need to impulse-buy a half-broken spaceship by mortgaging radioactive land, because they’re just that desperate to prove themselves more than a discarded scrap of a far greater history. They need to want their home and their people safe so much that they’ll risk their own soul to march across hundreds of miles of unknown and terrible danger to throw a cursed ring into a volcano. They need to love someone so much, and need them to know it, that they’ll blurt it out in the middle of a press conference or royal ball, or surrounded by enemies with a garrote at their throat or about to be frozen in carbonite or in the middle of a storm-tossed sea battle between pirates, British Navy, and the undead—or, they need to love someone so much that they’ll swear fealty to an evil emperor and kill a bunch of friends and children for the power to save them. They need to be so balls-to-the-wall insane in at least one regard that the plot isn’t just happening to them, they are in some way causing the plot.

As an Aro-Ace who was very uncomfortable with your post until this point: THANK YOU!

Also, one caveat: there is one rare type of story where the protagonist cannot become stupid over what they're after. This is the detective story where their character is in many ways a placeholder for the audience to try to solve the puzzle (as opposed to more thrilery types of detective story) and the detective's internal motivations are basically irrelevant because they are in many ways a framing device.

Same rule also applies to things like video game stories where the protagonist is more of a proxy character & lens for the player to examine the world, while the rest of the cast has motivation to spare. Basically, you can have a protagonist who is relatively normal about things if you make up for it by having everyone else pick up the slack (and then some).

Mewtwo

Secrets of Nimh

Wolverine

Akira

Elfen Lied

Shadow the Hedgehog

Do you want a guide to writing a research paper but you don't want to scroll a mile on your dash? This post is for you, buddy.

This book (book????) or tidily-laid-out-shitpost or whatever you want to call it is a handy-dandy guide to college-level humanities research methods and paper-writing.

This is a step-by-step follow along of my process as I, a person with a BA in English Lit, navigate writing a paper on George Orwell for my English 101 class.

This is NOT carefully crafted, it is literally a post that I made.

That said, it is a post that I made that is twelve thousand words on how to write a paper and now comes with a table of contents and headers and fancy alt-text and image descriptions and is forty fucking pages.

This document includes:

How to read an academic paper

How to skim a book for a college class

How to prioritize what sources to use

How to write an organized, cohesive research paper with an introduction, support paragraphs, and conclusion

(i managed to only say "fuck" six times in forty pages so I'm not taking them out.)

ANYWAY for a PDF click here.

If you want it in .docx click here.

Free to use for any reason, free to reproduce, give them to whoever, just don't sell them. (if you want to credit me if you do share them, ms-demeanor.tumblr.com is perfectly fine)

So here we go:

Very US education centric here but: If you are starting college and you don't feel confident in your writing, I would strongly recommend that you knock out these three GEs before you have to take more classes that involve writing:

College English/College Writing (often described as English 101). This class will teach you the basics of critical reading at a college level.

Speech. Speech classes teach you how to assert a position and logically defend it; a speech class should include some instruction on arguments as a concept, logic, and rhetoric.

Critical Thinking/Writing. This class combines critical reading with rhetorical skills and should teach you something about how to organize your thoughts in a clear, compelling way.

If you REALLY want to give yourself a head start, take a media studies and comm 100 class as well. (All told that's about 16 units; that's probably too much humanities for one term if you're just starting out and if you're a hard sciences major taking those in the first semester you're going to make yourself frustrated, but those would be good classes for you to make sure you take your freshman year, and definitely don't just put them off until you HAVE to take them to graduate)

Anyway, on to the guide!

Step 0: Figure out if your professor wants you to know what you know or if they want to know what you think.

Lower-division humanities papers are often looking for you to explain your understanding of a subject in your own words and to demonstrate that you can identify reliable sources in that field to explain the field. This is a "what you know" kind of paper. The research that you need to do for these types of papers is often general - you might be looking at chapters of books or early publications in the field or non-academic articles about the subject. When you write a paper like this you are essentially summarizing what you know and providing sources to show why you know it. These papers are most common in 100-level courses and will rarely exceed a couple of pages.

As you move further into a field of study, professors will begin to ask you to form and defend opinions about the subject. These are "what you think" kinds of papers. These kinds of papers are the ones where you will need to cite multiple academic journals or books on the subject. It is rare that a professor would ask you to write a paper like this that would be under three pages or a couple thousand words.

If you are a math major in a communication class or an art major in an anthropology class, you are probably going to be writing "what you know" papers. Frequently, the place that people struggle with humanities is in the transition from writing about what you've learned from the course materials to writing about opinions you've synthesized from those materials.

Most of the rest of this guide is on "what you think" kinds of papers, but will be applicable to "what you know" kind of papers in terms of organization and process.

Step 1: Identify your topic

Your paper is going to reflect what you've studied that term. Think about the available topics, which interest you the most, which you have a firm opinion about. Your paper is going to be a defense of your opinion about the topic, so you have to have some opinions about the topic and be interested enough in the topic to think a lot more about it.

Step 2: Form the very vaguest possible idea of what to write about

This is important in the humanities. You don't go into a paper certain that you know 100% what you're going to say, you go in with a general question that you've got some thoughts on and you want answered. You are going to be looking at the general state of research on your subject, seeing what other writers say about it, and figuring out where you agree or disagree with those authors, and finding evidence on your subject to support your statements.

Step 3: Start your preliminary research

For this you will need:

an open document on your computer

a web browser

a new folder on your desktop labeled with the name of your class and the assignment

a login for your school library's research database

a very vague idea of what you want to write about

Log on to the search database and search very general terms about your subject. Restrict your search based on the kind of paper ("what you know" papers can include magazines, textbooks, popular nonfiction, encyclopedias, etc. but "what you think" papers should be restricted to books and academic journals).

Search terms that combine your topic with the opinion that you have about it and see what comes up. Do not read any of the papers that come up yet. See if they come from journals that are applicable to your subject (if you are writing about history, a journal about literary criticism is unlikely to be useful). If you see article titles that seem pertinent to your subject, open them in new windows. Keep going until you have at least twice as many articles open as the number of sources the professor requires for this assignment.

Once you have enough articles open, click into each one and read the abstract or the first three paragraphs. If the paper is broadly relevant to your topic (even if it's something you disagree with) copy the citation information for the article (or just the title and author name) into your open document and download the article to your folder. Under the citation information, write what you think the article is about based on the little bit that you've read. If the paper is not relevant to your topic (it's actually written for a different discipline, it's using your topic as a metaphor instead of commenting on your topic, it's not an academic source), copy down the citation information in the document and write why it doesn't apply to your topic.

Step 4: Skim the research you've collected

The way you skim an academic paper is to read the introduction, then read the conclusion, then go back through the paper and read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Often when you start skimming, you know very quickly if the paper you're reading is going to be helpful or useless.

If a paper is useless (it discusses an area of the topic that isn't applicable to your paper, it is in a different discipline, it is very old scholarship that is inaccurate given current understanding) go back to the document and write why it's useless under the citation information.

If a paper is useful, don't read the whole thing yet. First, go to the document and write down why you think the article will be useful. Then, go to the bibliography of that article and look for titles it cites that might be applicable to your paper. Search for those papers in your school's database and repeat the preliminary research steps on those papers. You will likely have a few more articles to skim, so repeat the skimming process (including checking bibliographies and adding more research to the pile) until you don't feel like it will be helpful to add more sources.

Step 5: Reassess your opinion, and solidify the argument you want to make.

Now that you have skimmed several academic articles about your subject, you may have a firmer idea about your opinion of a topic or a more specific direction you want to research in. Think about the articles that you've skimmed and what they say about your topic. Do you think they're correct or incorrect? Why do you think they are correct or incorrect? Has thinking about whether the articles are correct or incorrect changed the way that you think about your topic. You might have started off by thinking "I want to write about technology in the great depression" you may now be thinking "I want to write about the relationship between early automobiles, the dust bowl, and internal migration in the US."

Step 6: Organize your research by relevance

By now you should have:

Citation information for the articles you've looked at

Notes on what articles will not be useful and why

Notes on what articles might be useful and why

Several articles downloaded in a folder.

Move the citations and notes for the non-useful sources to the bottom of your document. At the top of your document, organize the other sources in order of how applicable you think they are going to be to your paper.

I tend to group these in four categories: Very helpful, somewhat helpful, probably not helpful, not helpful.

Step 7: Actually read the research

Open your "very helpful" and "somewhat helpful" articles one at a time and read them.

As you are reading, copy sections of the text that you think support your ideas (or that directly oppose your ideas) and paste them into your document under the citation information for the article. (make sure to include page numbers!) For each bit of text that you paste, write one sentence explaining to yourself why you think the text is relevant to your topic.

Once you are done with that for each paper, correct the citation for each paper that you copied from so that the citation reflects the style your professor or field of study requires. Make sure the page numbers you saved are also formatted according to the proper citation style.

Step 8: Have a conversation with the research

If you are reading three papers that closely align with your point of view and one that does not, consider how the points made in the papers you agree with address the paper you disagree with. If the paper you disagree with has some good points, think about whether those points are addressed or countered in the other papers. If the papers all slightly disagree, what do you see that they have in common? Is there a similar trend to the disagreements? Figure out what question each paper is asking, how it answers that question, and if the answers to that question provide more insight into one of the other papers. Consider the way that these things all interact, and think about how they are interacting with your opinion on the subject.

Step 9: State your thesis.

I'm sure this seems quite late in the game, but that's how things go once you're past the introductory level of writing papers. You shouldn't form a solid argument until you've seen what you're arguing with and whether or not your initial thoughts are skewered by decades of scholarship on the matter. Now that you've thought about your subject, collected a lot of information about it, and seen what other people think about the subject, state your opinion on the matter. "I agree with papers one through three, though I have a slight quibble with two, and I disagree with paper four and think that papers two and three provide good reasons for disagreeing. Considering all of that information I think X is true of Y subject."

At this point your thesis should be messy and meandering, kind of scattered. You will refine it as you work.

Step 10: Order your thoughts

Look at the explanations you wrote for copying text in step 8 and look at your thesis. Collect those explanations and your thesis in a fresh document and group the explanations together in a way that makes sense to you. Maybe some explanations relate to a particular event and others relate to a particular person. Maybe some explanations are before an event and some explanations are after. Once the explanations are grouped, write a sentence explaining to yourself how the group of explanations relate to your thesis.

Congratulations, you now have the outline of your essay. Your thesis is your introduction AND conclusion, and the grouped explanations are your body paragraphs.

Step 11: Create your body paragraphs.

The explanation of how each group of explanations relates to your topic is now the topic sentence for the related supporting paragraph. The sentences explaining why you pulled out each quote is now your commentary on your evidence. The quotes are your evidence.

Very roughly place these choppy sentences and quotes together in an order that isn't totally nonsensical and at the end write a sentence that explains how THIS paragraph relates to the next paragraph.

Do this for as many groups of explanations you have.

At the beginning, write out how each of the supporting paragraphs support your thesis. At the end, write out what you think about how the supporting paragraphs supported your thesis. As you are doing this, try to streamline your thesis and make it clearer.

Congratulations, you now have a rough draft.

Step 12: Rewrite all of that

Open up a new document (or go paragraph by paragraph) and totally rewrite each paragraph so that the sentences are clear and readable.

DO NOT edit within the paragraph at a sentence-by-sentence level. You will get lost and twisted and will miss words and create sentence fragments and run-ons.

You rewrite each paragraph completely because that will allow you to see the places where your language is clunky or your arguments don't make sense because they haven't been explained or where you accidentally cut off half a quote when you copy/pasted.

As you rewrite, try to make sure your transitions aren't jarring or abrupt, and that the ideas you describe logically follow from the evidence you present and the arguments you make.

If you find that maybe you don't have a ton of evidence for an argument, look back at your other document and see if there's something you missed in the quotes you pulled or if there's information you can use from your other sources to add support to your argument (of course, this should actually be information that supports your argument, not a sneaky partial quote or out-of-context misuse of the text).

Earlier you had a conversation with the research, now you are making your contribution to the conversation so it's good to try to get it to flow naturally.

Step 13: Rewrite all of that (II)

NOW rewrite at the sentence level. Read each sentence and see if you can make it clearer, or make it more related to the whole flow of the paragraph. Check your spelling and grammar. Simplify complex sentences, but if you see the opportunity for a linguistic flourish, take it.

This is now your second draft.

Step 14: Read all of that

If time permits, have someone else read your paper. Ask them to make notes on any noticeable errors, ask them to point out passages they found confusing. Correct the issues they pointed out then *walk away from your paper for a minimum of several hours and think about anything that is not your paper.*

Watch an action movie, go to a show, get in an argument on the internet, film a makeup tutorial, play an instrument, play with your pets, go on a date. Do something that forces you not to think about your paper. If at all possible, do this and go to bed right after without looking at your paper before you go to sleep.

Once you have had some time away from your paper, open the document and read the paper out loud. This is best if you can read it to another person (and it's the VERY best if you can read it to the person who helped you earlier), but if you can't read it to another person make a video on your phone of you reading the paper out loud. (hell, make a video even if you can find someone else to read to).

As you read, mark places where you stumble or where sentences don't make sense or are hard to say aloud. If something confuses you as you, the writer, read it out loud, it will confuse your readers.

Watch the video of you reading your paper and identify any sections that sound out of place or too informal or much too formal or like a stretch. Go back into your paper and correct those sections.

Step 15: Format your paper

Organize the document according to the standards of the field you're writing in. Make sure that page numbers, headers, margins, etc. are all correct.

Copy the organized citations from your old document into a works cited page or bibliography, making sure that you are following the formatting guidelines as needed.

Step 16: Read all of that (II)

Select the text of your paper and change the font to something noticeably different, ideally something not sanctioned by the style guide. Read your paper in the new font and see if you are suddenly having a harder time reading certain sections or if missed words or typos are suddenly jumping out at you. Correct anything that needs correcting.

If you have a text-to-speech tool available, have the tool read the paper to you. As it reads, note anything that is awkward or sounds thin. Correct those errors. If your very kind friend who read your paper earlier and listened to you read it is available, ask them to read the paper one more time and offer criticism. If they have suggestions that you agree with, make the corrections.

Step 17: Format your paper (II)

Change your paper's font back to the correct one for the style guide. Read your paper one final time just in case.

In your word processor, make a copy of the file and save it with the naming standard requested by your professor.

You now have your final draft, which does not include the edit history of the document. ***KEEP YOUR EARLIER DRAFTS*** and the citation document and the first document with every single piece of research because these are evidence that you worked on the paper from start to finish yourself, but I am of the opinion that your document history should be a secret that you keep to yourself. Nobody needs to see your editing agonies.

Step 18: Turn in your paper (early, if possible)

Submit your paper in the manner required by your professor; do this with at least two hours to spare before the submission window so that if you have any technical difficulties you can reach out to support and your professor well before the submission window closes.

Step 19: Celebrate being done with that fucking paper

like other institutions, at the end of the day we have to use numbers to justify our existence and inform our financial decisions

check out that novel by that author you like even if you know there's no time to finish it. check out a movie you like even if you can't watch it. check out a sewing machine even if you don't have time for a project. we don't check if you finish anything, and it all adds up.

“Stop pushing this off. Something’s really wrong. Trust me.”

“Don’t look at it. What did I just say?”

“You have a fever so I’m going to pretend you did not just say that to me.”

“I need you to stop moving. I know. I’m sorry. But I can’t stitch this up if you keep pulling away.”

“Can you walk?”

“That was a really hard hit. Maybe you should just lay there for a while.”

“You look terrible. How terrible? Terrible enough for them to call me.”

“I’ve got you. You’re okay. It was just a fever dream.”

“It’s not that deep. I’m wrapping it up…ohhh my God…yeah, no, it’s fine. Not that bad.”

heavy/harsh/deep breathing

panting/hyperventilating

ragged breathing - they can't get enough air in, they can't breathe

breathing sharply - not even realising it, it's just instinctual to hiss like that after being slashed and hurt

shuddering breaths; stunned from everything that has happened while steeling themselves for more

whimpering - because of a yell suppressed

acute/emotional pain responses: yelping, screaming, shrieking, wailing

the facade breaking - face falling, all the suppressed noises coming up and out of their broken body; they cry for much longer than they even thought they had energy for