: Using expletives in an essay Good day everyone! Just a background, I am writing an essay that is formatted with APA styling. In my paper, I have the word "shit" in it; essentially in this

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When I taught ENGL100, I advised students to minimize quotes (still maximize citations for their summaries and paraphrases unless it was to indicate "poetry or precision".

The quote you indicated definitely would count under "poetry" -- any attempt to rephrase it changes its meaning too significantly.

If there is a firm rule in the class against specific words, then I would do the NYTimes thing and write it with as few letters dashed out as possible: "sh_t," "sh--" or "s---" all get the point across, but are increasingly neutered.

Another option would be "[defecate]" -- the square brackets indicate a substitution or addition. If Bruce Wayne is talking about his good friend Clark, he may say "Clark is the best at karaoke, his voice is super!" but you may quote it as "Clark [Kent] is the best at karaoke." If he slipped and said "Superman is the best at karaoke," or if he was unclear in that one sentence ("He's great at karaoke") you can save the secret identity (or clarify who "he" is) by saying "[Clark Kent] is the best at karaoke" --

(I see Lauren Ipsum already covered the square brackets some -- I just wanted to add more context on the land of square brackets)

I would advise against adding "[sic]" (Latin for "thus") after the quote, because that's more commonly used to show "there's an error here, I know it, you know it, but I wanted to preserve the flavor." I might use it if the elder misspoke, but it seems clear that he knew what he meant to say, and the influence the would would have. If you wanted to indicate that a Martian awkwardly askedwhere the bathroom was on this boat, you might say "Where does one ship on this ship?[sic]" However, others may view "shit" as a colloquialism that should get the "sic" treatment. Check your style guide, perhaps?

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There's a big difference between using an expletive, and quoting an expletive. I would strongly advise against the former in an essay, but the latter is a quite different situation --it's reportage, not usage. If the quote is important to your essay, go ahead and include it.

(If using the quote makes you personally uncomfortable, or if your professor asks you to censor it, LaurenIpsum's advice is the correct path to follow.)

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Given your quote in context, the obscenity works. It's blunt and to the point, and since you are in fact pointing out that people don't have time or energy for philosophy when they're starving, it's rather apropos.

If you're genuinely worried about the expletive, don't use a halfway substitute. Make it clear what you're censoring by using the correct term, and your readers will understand what you've done:

"You have to eat before you [defecate]."

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That depends on the context in which you're writing the essay. If it's an essay that will appear in a magazine for left-wing college students, it might be perfectly appropriate. If it's an essay intended for publication in a prestigious academic journal, probably not. To be given as a speech by the pope? I think we could say pretty surely no.

Whenever questions of the appropriateness of vulgar language come up, the advice I always give is: If there's the least bit of doubt, don't. I read an article by a film critic once in which he said -- quoting from memory, not an exact quote -- "No one has ever said, That could have been a good movie, but they just didn't use the f-word enough." There are people who are offended by vulgar language, and who will quit reading when the vulgarity reaches a level that exceeds their tolerance. No one will quit reading because the level of vulgarity is too low.

Yes, sometimes vulgar language can be used to make a point more strongly. But you could almost always be just as effective by using strong words that are not vulgar. And if you do you are more likely to be taken seriously, because you sound more educated.

Yes, if you are writing dialog in a novel, there are cases where in real life the character would use vulgar language. A novel where the psychopathic drug-dealing murderer gets angry and shouts, "You silly person! I am very unhappy with your actions!" would not be very believable. But that's not the issue here.

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