TSIS "So what? Who Cares?"

Graff and Birkenstein border on redundancy chapter seven’s “who cares” and the “so what” factor. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that every chapter not only has these elements somewhere imbedded within them, but they devote a whole chapter to the subject. But why does this? It can’t be a random thing.

I’ve been trying to figure out why and it occurred to me that without “who cares” and “so what” my academic papers would be, at best, verbose, esoteric, glorified newspaper articles that one would find in an encyclopedia. It seems that the premises found in chapter seven is what gives academic writing the girth and meaning akin to poetry and fiction. The difference being, I believe, that the function of poetry and fiction is to say something about the human condition, say something about life, to relay a story, allowing the reader, largely, to come up with how that is accomplished. While academic writing is more transparent and is largely grounded in how and why the analytical elements of fiction and poetry work, how they apply to this what-ever thing I’m applying it too. This is the only way I could make sense of why they keep skirting these premises.