Diacritics

Diacritics is a scholarly, quarterly, journal that lends itself to “no particular school of thought”, instead choosing to present as a collection of the intelligentsia with contributions from both national and international scholars and professors, all of whom may “enter a forum for thinking about contradictions without resolutions (Overview) . It was founded in 1971 as a branch of Cornell University’s Romantic Studies department. Since then, it has gone on to become published by John Hopkins University although the majority of the editorial board is  made up of a majority of Cornell professors. 

Within an issue of Diacritics, articles range anywhere from book reviews, to literary criticism, to criticism of fellow scholars and artists, often with no correlation existing between any of the articles. For example, in the Fall 1971 issue, a book review titled “Gabriel Garcia and the Lost Art of Storytelling” by Ricardo Gullon appeared alongside a response to personal criticism titled “Monstrosities In Criticism” by Michel Foucault. Both authors were professors at their respective Universities, with Gullon being credited as the “Professor of Spanish/Spanish American Literature at the University of Texas”(Gullon), and Foucault was a professor at the Collége de France. Additionally, both articles were written in Chicago Style format, as is required by the Diacritics submission form. However, that is where the similarities end as both articles differ completely in subject matter and length. The wide variation of topics continued on through the 1990s with the only difference coming with the addition of footnotes to articles and a longer length of paper. Beginning in the 21st century, however, issues began to adopt a common theme along with reducing the number of articles. An example of this is the Winter 2018 issue titled “Collective Temporalities: Decolonial Perspectives. 

With about 1600 issues in circulation, most articles in the 21st century issues are formatted similarly as directed by the Diacritics submission file which states that articles “must not exceed 12,000 words, must be written in Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, with endnotes and a bibliography” (Author Guidelines). An additional requirement is that the work you submit must be original and unique to Diacritics as they reject articles that have already been published by other scholarly journals. On average, 80 articles are submitted annually with only 26 of those actually being chosen for publication. 

Students at Tennessee Tech University can access any 20th century issue of Diacritics for free through their website. To access articles written in the 21st century, students have to go to the research database ProQuest and are given free access through the university. Diacritics is a useful resource in that it offers alternative theories and criticisms posed by a variety of knowledgeable scholars, however, it should be noted that most articles are founded solely on one author’s individual thought process that may not reflect the consensus of a general academia on any given topic.

Works Cited

“Author Guidelines.” Author Guidelines | JHU Press, www.press.jhu.edu/journals/diacritics/author-guidelines.

Gullon, Ricardo. “Gabriel Garcia Marquez & the Lost Art of Storytelling.” Diacritics, vol. 1, no. 1, 1971, pp. 27–32. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/464556.

“Overview.” Diacritics, John Hopkins University, 21 Aug. 2019, http://www.diacriticsjournal.com/portfolio/overview/.

Writing Tutorial Services

Writing Tutorial Services is a resource provided by the University of Indiana in Bloomington. Overseen by John Paul Kanwit, director of the Campus Writing Program at IUB, the Writing Tutorial Service offers academic help to students both on and off campus. Located at the Wells Library Info Commons at the University, the WTS provides both graduate and undergraduate tutors to students, however, they do not accept walk-ins, every student must schedule an appointment through the Service’s website. While in person help is only available to those registered at the university, the WTS also provides a variety of infographics and writing guides that are free for the general public to use. Subjects include advice on writing thesis statements, personal statements and academic letter, and writing book reviews. For example, in the guide “How To Write A Thesis Statement”, a step by step process is laid out to guide readers through the process of writing a thesis statement with and without a predetermined topic, listing examples of weak versus strong statements such as “World hunger has many causes and effects” in contrast to “Hunger persists in Glandelinia because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable” (Writing Tutorial Service). Additionally, the website provides information on common grammatical errors and ways to avoid plagiarism. The site is fairly easy to navigate with links to tutorials being displayed on their main page.

Works Cited

“How To Write A Thesis Statement.” Writing Guides: Writing Tutorial Service, 2011, wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/pdf/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.pdf.“

Writing Guides.” Writing Tutorial Services, wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/index.html

Online Books Page

The Online Books Page is  a website with an accumulation of over 3 million free books, put together by researcher and digital library planner John Mark Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania. Ockerbloom first created the OBP in 1993 while he was attending Carnegie Mellon before moving to the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. Partnering with organizations such as Project Gutenberg, HathiTrust, and the University of Florida in Baldwin’s Digital Collection of Historic Children’s Literature, the Online Books Page works to provide a large variety of books at no charge to the public. Examples of the books provided include a cookbook entitled The A & P Cook and Recipes Book by Edna Neil, published sometime in the beginning of the 20th century and the Daemonologie, a book about black magic and demons written by King James I in 1597. While it is possible to find any number of historical books, it is difficult to find modern resources due to their submission process. Before a book can be added to the OBP, it must meet a certain set of criteria. Submitted books must be “legitimately available at no charge, must contain the European alphabet, and must be a well formatted text in a standard format”( Online Books Page). Although it partners with multiple organizations,the OBP does not receive any external funding for any of its resources, technical services are provided through its residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

Works Cited

“The Online Books Page.” Edited by John Ockerbloom, The Online Books Page, 1999, onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.