Donald Murray Objective

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Have you ever had a paper scrutinized for using the first person or not being objective? Chances are that you have. We have all had a teacher in the past that has told us that we have to write objectively. I have always wondered why this has been the rule we have had drilled into our heads when it comes to writing a paper. This is more than something that we have been told not to do we have been marked down points for doing so. It is impossible to write without having yourself in the writing. In an article by Donald Murray, he talks about how everything we write is autobiography. This well-known writer believes that this is unavoidable. So if this is the case why are we told to write completely objectively even though this is unavoidable? All…show more content…
One of these rules is to write objectively. However, this is not always the case. Donald Murray states, “All of my writing-and yours-is autobiographical” (Murray 66). Everything we write and everything that has been written contains traces of the author. This is not done intentionally and is unavoidable. Everyone does this in all of their texts. There are even more ways that we use the first person perspective. When we add something to a paper that is the writer. We decide what we put in a paper based on our personal ideas and feelings. The details we add are controlled by us (Murray 67). When we write we are in control of what we put into the text. There are things that we put in our papers because, we feel like that will make your point more than other examples. Even reading something makes it autobiographical. We interpret the text different from every other person that reads the same writing (Murray 74). Even if a writing seems like it is objective how the reader interprets it makes the piece subjective. Sometimes we can use first person to give a new point of view on a topic that may not have been thought of before (Maddalena). This makes the writer have a sense of intelligence and possibly gives a new view on something that has not been thought of the same way. It allows them to expand on a new idea. When a writer has an idea that is completely original it makes the argument new and continues the conversation and adds on to it. This can also be a key to seeing the best way to fix a

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