Thursday, April 21, 2016

My Writing: Lizzi Perkins

This semester I learned so much about the writing process. As an advertising major with an English minor I thought, I’m not going to have to write any more literary criticism in college again! But what I didn’t realize was that this class would help me in a lot of other aspects beyond literary criticism.

On the literary front I learned a lot about what a thesis statement is supposed to be and what it is supposed to do for a paper. Granted, I still have a lot of work to do there (my theses are interesting to me but I still have to work to take them in a more controversial direction so my paper has more umph), but now I can recognize a good thesis. Overall, I am still not an outstanding literary critic, but I am better than I was (sometimes I focus too much on the style and research and lose the importance of the primary text).

On that note, I loved doing research! I learned a lot about effective ways to research and I loved getting into the library! Too often I find myself doing all my research online; I forgot the allure and beauty of the library (which sounds weird but is real!). My research really improved as I explored more methods of gaining insight.

But what I improved the most in was learning creativity and drafting skills. I loved in class assignments with partners (I loved getting feedback and learning different styles of doing things) and I loved all the different ways we attacked the drafting process. In other areas of my schoolwork I have applied some of the different methods we used (stickies, drawing pictures, handwriting) and it has made a big difference in the caliber of my ideas and brainstorming. 


I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot! I'm glad I got to know all the other students and learn so much about my own writing process and how to improve it! In the future I plan on getting feedback from a peer (especially in the drafting stages) to get ideas and focus my paper down. I also plan on continuing to give myself more than a night to write a paper; taking the time to write, wait, and fix my essays made a huge difference in the quality of my writing and in my enjoyment of it.

Thanks so much Dr. Burton!

My Writing: Sage Madsen

This semester... wow! It's been one of the hardest semesters ever, but thankfully I had a lot of really amazing experiences despite the all-around difficulty. This class has been one of those amazing experiences. I'd never studied John Donne poetry before, and I ended up studying him in other classes this semester as well... alongside all his intense poetry, I came to understand life a little more, too. 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

My Writing: Rebekah Hartshorn

I did it!!! I've been procrastinating this class for as long as I could and turns out that my trepidation was well placed. However, I'm really grateful for Dr. Burton's help this semester.

My Writing: Kayla Nelson


So, this class made me realize how much of a mess my writing process was and helped me figure out a more effective way to write. 

The first post was a really fun experience for me! It opened up my eyes and had me realize how much I rely on literature and writing to live a fulfilled life. This was the last time I wrote an essay with my original writing process. 
Another blog post that was enlightening to my writing was when we had to do a preliminary analysis on a Donne poem. This forced me to find at least 10 different points of possible direction. This process gave me a start for any future essays! 
The most helpful of any exercise we did in class was the hour limit of writing. It helped me put a lot of my ideas on paper. 

These exercises helped me understand that lengthening the writing process can be EXTREMELY beneficial to me and my writing! 

It was super interesting to me to see how online and technological sources could be a help in writing. My facebook posts concerning my writing were met with many comments, questions, and ideas from friends I hadn't anticipated hearing from. It really aided my writing process to be able to reach out to an online community. I joined a Harry Potter community discussion group on facebook that had a lot of fun ideas I hadn't considered for my research paper. 

The social aspect of the class was fantastic! It was so great to have peers to talk to about the assignments. I loved sharing my methods for writing prep and process. And I really enjoyed seeing everyone else's methods as well. It created a community of writers that were all working toward similar goals. 

I loved this class and I loved getting to know all of you! WRITE ON!

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

My Writing: Nicole Ratliff

Whelp. It's over. I guess this class was not what I was expecting to say the least, although now that I think about it, I don't even know what I was expecting to be honest. I think in all reality I thought that this would be just like my AP English Language and Composition course where I wrote my first 15 page paper on The Grapes of Wrath... I even chose that to be the same book I would write my final paper on for this semester! But this class was wayyyyy different! Yes, there was structure. Yes, there was a goal. But I really felt that I was constantly being pushed out of my comfort zone. Although not everything I wrote was perfect, I feel that every thing I did this semester improved my writing and now I know what I enjoy as well as what I don't as well as I think I am really beginning to understand myself as a writer.

Although this first post isn't necessarily anything important, I feel like this was the first time I really expressed my love of writing to others through writing! And throughout the semester I used this piece as inspiration and a reminder of why I am an English Major especially when I didn't do as well as I would have liked and felt discouraged.

Besides the first blog post I feel that the first time we tried writing our essays in an hour which can be seen in this post, "Flashback, Flashback!" Giving myself only an hour- a productive hour to write- really helped me to focus on the important themes and concepts that I wanted to address in addition to creating an outline that would make filling in the rest of my paper much easier! I learned that I really like this way of writing in addition to the ways that we built upon it aka being accountable to someone else in class and helping others in their writing process. It was amazing to see how much talking to others really helped me flesh out my ideas for my papers and really understand what I was writing about and why! In my future writing I would love to take more of a social approach, including posting more on facebook and other platforms and really understand if my "why" is important to others!

Although I do have to admit that I am not the best writers of literary criticism, I learned a lot about how to improve my formal writing as well as what kind of writer I am. I am extremely lengthy and sometimes my writing is as complicated as I am! I love to bask in the creative aspects of the writing process and enjoy looking at my work feeling accomplished because of the improvements I have made as well as the successes I have had. I like to compare stories and love to see how to bridge the gaps between generations. I am glad that I was able to learn social aspects of writing as well as improve my formal writing habits. This class was another way I could develop myself as a writer, and I enjoyed it!



Happy End of the Semester! Idk about you guys but I'm ready to hit the beach!

Monday, April 18, 2016

My Writing: Veronica Whelan

This class was amazingly beneficial to me. It allowed me to learn how to actually write a paper in a way that had really never been broken down for me before, and showed me a lot of things that I really needed to learn how to do properly, as well as letting me see what I was already good at. Previous to this class, my abilities to really break down and analyze something were close to nonexistent, and while they are definitely still in need of a lot of work, I have seen an infinite improvement in the way I approach the task of "writing a paper." I have learned how to really divide up my tasks and put an equal effort into every aspect, rather than rather hurriedly trying to shove as much into words as I could, and subsequently losing a lot of meaning and depth in my writing.

While it may not be evident to an outside reader, writing this post really caused a breakthrough for me in terms of creating a solid thesis. Before this specific assignment, I really was at a loss when it came to this basic skill, because I really didn't understand the mechanics of a "thesis." This assignment really forced me to teach myself how to break down an idea and then rebuild it in an exact pattern.

Another assignment that really sparked me was this one. The entire process that we worked through with our W;t essays really had an impact on me. I have to say, this may be one of the very first, proper rough drafts I had ever written in my life. And this is from someone who really, really loves to write. I literally didn't know how to write a draft. This was honestly a huge impact on the way I think about writing papers. It was actually kind of incredible.

Receiving feedback from fellow students as well as our instructor was, while at first a little strange, actually very helpful. It allowed me to see a lot of random perspectives, rather than a single person's. Also, it seemed that every comment had a different suggestion or compliment than the previous one, which helped me to see smaller aspects of my writing that were or were not helping my overall goal.

All in all, I enjoyed this class immensely. I know that I am not supposed to gush too much in my writing (sorry, professor Burton), but this is a response, not an analysis. This is possibly the most useful class, as far as my writing is concerned, that I have ever taken.

My Writing: Jonah Byers

Before this class, my definition of "research" was looking up sources online specifically by title, then skimming for meaningful quotes. No understanding of the source, no actual learning from them and application to my writing, just "go in, get the quotes, get out." I realize now that my first attempt at researching sources for Nicole back in February was much like that; I wasn't so much looking for useful information as I was just trying to find sources that sounded like they were useful. However, the more I tried, the more I realized that just skimming wasn't going to cut it. After that, my research was so much more in depth (literally, in some cases, as I found myself lost in the depths of the HBLL a few times), but I emerged with a much better knowledge of what makes a research paper and how sources are used within it.

I will admit, I still need to work on thesis statements, but at least I understand what makes a good one now. I may not have participated in the different theses assignment (that was the day my computer broke and took the Apple Store most of the day to fix), but reading everyone else's and understanding the differences between them was incredibly helpful for any future writing and criticism I may write.

The most glaring improvement I've made in writing is the use of scheduled drafts. All through high school, I was very much the student who was so confident in their writing ability that they never do more than one draft. I'd write an essay and turn it in without any kind of drafting process, proofreading, peer-editing, or any other kind of revising. I shudder to think of what my grade would have been like for this class if I'd taken that approach for the final paper. The first time we did an in-class drafting assignment really opened my eyes to how actually reviewing and planning my writing improved it so much.

Finally, peer critiques as well as just discussing works with friends really helped me understand where I could go with the assignments. Rebekah and I were just idly discussing different concepts in our papers and, while I can't speak for her, just that discussion really helped me figure out where to go for the final draft. Having a friend or classmate read through your work and drafting was an important step that, as a full-fledged socially anxious introvert, I never wanted to accept, but now, I don't think I'll ever submit another essay or paper without having someone else read it first.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

My Writing: Shelby Dana

This semester was really beneficial for me as a writer and a literary critic.  I learned a lot of different techniques that I had never considered using before!  While some of them I didn’t love, many were really helpful and I’ll definitely use them in the future.

One of my favorite things we did this semester was study the poetry of John Donne and then watch the movie W;t.  It was so good for me to see the difference between a play and film adaptation and all of the different aspects of it  (found here) I found myself not only going deeper into the film itself, but understanding the poem better because of the interpretations of the producers and actors, etc.

Another thing I really loved that we did this semester was working on thesis statements.  (Blog post found here.) This was useful for me because I learned that the type of thesis statement I use can very easily determine the direction that my paper will take.  I liked that there is a formula for us to follow because that helps me to figure things out better and organize them in my mind before I even start writing my paper.  This was a great tip.

Our process in the last paper was perhaps the most helpful for me.  Working with a partner helped me reevaluate my work and clarify my ideas.  I found that when I had to explain what I was thinking about to someone else, I was able to weed out things that were unnecessary, didn’t make sense, or didn’t contribute to the idea of my paper effectively.  Lizzi was an encouraging partner, and that motivation made all the difference!  I also really liked it when Kayla read through my paper and gave me a few ideas for edits that should be made. A fresh pair of eyes makes a world of difference!

While writing the last paper, I discovered a technique that made a semi-intimidating assignment a little easier to handle. At first it was really scary and I didn't do well, but the second time I tried was much better! Here's proof how bad it was.  I decided to just open up a separate Word Doc for each point I planned on making in the paper.  When I looked at it in chunks instead of thinking about the paper as a giant, scary whole, it was easier for me to complete. 


All in all, this was a good class that helped me grow as a writer and I’m glad that I was able to take it! 

My Writing: Justin Rich

My writing actually changed a lot over the course of this semester.   One of the main things that changed for me is the way I approach starting a paper.  Before this class I was the type to just sit down without any preparation and write the final draft.  One of the things that changed for me was that I started doing more preparation and brainstorming before I started writing a paper.  One example of this is when we did the prewriting for the last piece of literary criticism for the class.  For the first time I experimented with ways of getting a bunch of ideas out before I started even writing my introduction.  I think this made me more open minded to different subjects to write about.  In the past I would just think of an idea to write about and stick to it.


The other aspect of my writing that changed significantly was the drafting process. I was never one to draft much in the past.  One of the most helpful things I did especially on the last paper we wrote was draft with a paper and pen.  It is something I had not done since elementary school, but it made the process much easier for me while drafting my final paper.  I felt like I was able to get my thoughts out on the paper much more smoothly and I did not feel like I had writers block at all.  Along with this I felt like the social aspect of drafting was helpful.  It was nice to be able to talk to someone about the ideas I had and where I could go with them.  The people I talked to were able to give me ideas about how I could make the ideas clearer and the essay more thesis driven.  The social aspect of drafting at the same time as someone else in the class also helped me a lot, because it forced me to start writing.  Sometimes the hardest part of the process for me can just be starting to write.  So being forced to write at the same time as someone else in the class helped me to push through this. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

My Writing: Courtney Smith

There were lots of opportunities for growth this semester. One thing that I had never done before was creating different types of thesis statements. (This post is "Thesis Statements" on February 1st.)  It was interesting learning about what types of thesis statements there were, which is useful because the thesis is such an essential part of the paper. I think I can use this as a tool in the future to fine-tune my theses and make sure I am expressing the right ideas. I've also been able to experiment with things that I had never been exposed to before; for example, when writing the "playful pre-write," (I posted this as "Playful Pre-writing" on March 14th) I was able to get a better sense of where my thesis was headed.  It was a great way to try different paths of thinking and use a variety of things to develop more solid ideas about what kind of paper I wanted to write. In the past I did not have creative ways of approaching a paper, so this brought in new ideas and helped me to really absorb the text. It was also good for me because I am an outline addict--I outline absolutely everything that I possibly can so that I can see my work start to finish. I did this thorough outline for the Donne paper (entitled "Writing Plan and Record: Courtney Smith" and posted on January 16th) but didn't for the last paper. I think it helped me to try different types of pre-writing and do whatever felt comfortable for me at the time, since getting started can seem impossibly hard at the beginning. There was also, of course, plenty of practice researching, which was a great experience.

One thing that was helpful for me was the partner writing that we did for the final research paper. There was enough flexibility that we could make this process our own while still having the structure of reporting to someone that you were writing. It was also nice to discuss ideas with other people, especially on the final research paper. Even just working through ideas out loud brought new thoughts to me that I hadn't had before. Sharing during any and all of the writing process is a stretch for me, since generally writing is strictly individual during most of my school years, but it was good for me to see the benefits of branching out a bit.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Reflective Post Assignment

Write a blog post titled "My Writing: [Full name]" in which you reflect upon your writing process and your understanding of yourself as a researcher, literary critic, and academic writer as this has developed over the course of this class. Make specific reference to things you have tried (by assignment or personal experiment), and realizations you've made about the stages of writing or about your particular strengths or challenges as a writer.

Please link to specific blog posts from the semester that reflect your efforts at literary criticism or your efforts to understand and develop your writing process.

Include in your blog post an assessment of the social and online aspects of writing as you've been involved in peer critiques and online drafting during the semester. How has this helped you? What can you do to integrate either social or online aspects to your future writing assignments?

Keep this post to 300-400 words.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

East of Eden Drafting: Take Two

Okay friends, this post needs a huge disclaimer: this draft is a complete and utter MESS. I had a weird headache and I was still mentally drafting (my bad for not planning ahead a little better...) so this is awful. I'm actually embarrassed to post it, haha. But please know that if the middle doesn't make any sense, it's not supposed to yet--I'm working on it :)

The concept of “timshel” is very valid and well-supported in this epic novel. It is the character of Lee, the Chinese immigrant who raises Adam’s twin boys Aron and Caleb, who goes by “Cal”. During his years of research on the Bible, Lee discovers that in the original Hebrew, the word given with God’s commands is “timshel,” meaning “thou mayest.” Lee then states that “[this] might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man” to choose his own actions rather than being forced to do anything. (301) This is an empowering idea, as this allows all people to act freely, but it is also a responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions. No one is forced to do anything, so they must live with the consequences of whatever they choose to do. This is shown very poignantly in the final meeting of Cathy, then Kate, and her husband Adam. When Adam finds her in her prostitution house, Kate believes that, just as before, she can use manipulation to gain power of her former husband. But Adam chose to confront her and his feelings of love for her, and in doing so, he saw her as she truly was. He could not be fooled anymore and he was free to act. He even “laughed because he knew that [she didn’t matter]” to him anymore. (323) Parallel to his choices are Kate’s very purposeful actions. She chose again and again to lash out and hurt Adam as much as she could with her blackmail, her lies and affair, and her sexuality. But Adam realizes and declares to her that she “hate[s] the good in [others] that [she] can’t get at,” which is “something [that she] can’t understand.” (321) Yet even though she, as a sociopath, cannot understand goodness the way that others can, she still puts for real effort to ruin others. That is not just her nature—it is her conscious decision. She becomes bound by her horrible, selfish choices when she loses power over Adam and therefore can no longer make choices for them both in the situation.
            Yet there is a paradox, for even though every person has the ability to choose for themselves, they each have a unique drive that causes them to choose the things that they do. There is something that motivates each person that causes them to act differently from others, and this thing can be defining. When Adam is forced to think again about Cathy, he must choose how to respond. Lee tells him that even though he is facing a choice, “[his] course is drawn. What [he] will do is written—written in every breath [he’s] ever taken” (376). Human thought and habits are both consistent and persistent. It is difficult to break free of our usual thoughts processes and perceptions.
            Steinbeck seems to take this a step further as he suggests that our nurturing styles and interactions are influenced by our nature. As Adam thought back to his relationship with Cathy, he asked Samuel if she had truly even been beautiful like he had always thought. Samuel replied that “to [him] she was because [he] built her” (260). Adam has a pure heart and a good soul, and he saw these qualities in Cathy even though they were not there at all. He reflected himself onto her. Cathy did the same with her customers at her prostitution house; she insisted on reducing every man into an animal by seeing and exploiting only their flaws.
            Steinbeck does realize, however, that nature can be improved upon or ruined by one’s nurture. The character Samuel argues that although “You can’t make a race horse of a pig,” a person “can make a very fast pig” (260). He feels strongly that one’s children “will be what you expect of them.” There is a responsibility given to parents to encourage the very best in their children, if for no reason but to draw on the better parts of their nature.
            Embracing the best parts of one’s nature can be a very healthy process. Near the beginning of the story, the reader learns that Cathy began her rampage early in her life, when she realized that she took pleasure in other’s pain. When she was a teenager, she did many horrible things, including locking her parents and burning down the house with them inside. This is symbolic of Cathy rejecting her nurture and only embracing her own nature. Because she only chose the most evil parts of herself,

            But it is a person’s right to choose that course, whatever their reasoning, that Steinbeck so highly praises. He declares that he would “fight for” every person’s right to make their own decisions because “the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.”  This is the thing that, above anything else, Steinbeck believes and wants others to know—that every person can and should make their own choices and should also rejoice in the fact that they can. He seems to find strength in the idea that we make our choices free of outside influences, even our nurture, as this takes away the most precious “freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.” In this way we come to rely more on ourselves and our personal progress as we journey through life rather than be shaped by the circumstances and factors outside of our control. For Steinbeck, as shown in this epic novel, this is the crowning glory of mankind—to be one’s own person and make their own decisions for themselves.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Improving by the Hour

As if to make up for the disaster that was my last attempt at timed writing for this piece, my process went so smoothly today!  I was really happy with how far I got.  Instead of looking at it as a monster paper that makes me want to hide under my bed, I broke it into bits.  Each point got its own Word Doc and I was able to stitch them together at the end of today.  Now, I just need to do the intro and conclusion and I'll have a pretty decent draft of this guy!

Here's what I've come up with:

Almost getting past the "thought blurps" now!

Here we go. One hour.

The way that Rowling is able to convey the frustration behind gender roles is in a way almost non-chelaunt. She never comes out and says that the way society views gender is wrong, but she alludes to this idea several times in each of the seven books in the series.

Another Successful Hour

So for this time around I decided to try Veronica's method of writing the Introduction and Conclusion and then filling in from there to make sure that my ideas would match up. So for this hour I really focused on solidifying those 2 paragraphs and I feel like they definitely show where I want my paper to go and so here's what I worked on that is in addition to the outline I made last time:


God or Man?
            Democritus, also known as the Laughing Philosopher, once said, “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul” [Brainy Quotes]. As a part of human nature, individuals are constantly looking for the source of happiness. Some look for happiness in others, some look for it in material goods, sometimes it is sought after in oneself. Others look for happiness in dreams, religious pursuits, and the divine. In The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, the Joad’s- a family who has been affected by the Dust Bowl- are forced to migrate west. Along their journey they are constantly looking for ways to find happiness, whether it be through a son’s return, daughter’s pregnancy, or hope of a promised land. Unfortunately, every time the Joad’s put their faith in something, the outcome never is what they desire because it is based off of the powers of human nature. Their son is not able to save them, their daughter’s baby is a stillbirth, and the Promised Land is instead an overcrowded wasteland. Similarly to Steinbeck, Samuel Johnson explores the follies of human nature in The Vanity of Human Wishes. Johnson explores how pride, stubbornness, and worldly pursuits harm the progression of individuals because it is only through divine help that the vanities can be put aside and real progression can begin. As described in the Norton Anthology of English Literature’s introduction to Samuel Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes, “ In a world of blindness and illusion, human beings must struggle to find a point of view that will not deceive them, and a happiness that can last” [Norton Anthology]. Although The Grapes of Wrath is perceived as a novel of triumph of the oppressed and a call for socialism, in actuality the novel exposes the vanities of human nature as described in The Vanity of Human Wishes and calls for a return to God for the betterment of society.

            BODY PARAGRAPHS

            The Grapes of Wrath shows the struggles that are a part of the nature of humanity and the vices that are described in The Vanity of Human Wishes. The novel exposes the follies of individuals placing their faith in humanity and hoping for things that no human could possibly fulfill. Through exposing human vices such as stubbornness, pride, and wishful thinking, as well as using Christ figures and using historical evidence, Steinbeck and Johnson call for a return to God and separating from the unreliable- human nature.

            

Another Hour of Writing: Testing at Hogwarts

I did the same type of drafting as last time but with a new subject that I want to have in my paper. I just kind of typed every thought I had about this area as soon as I had it. It will seem random and crazy and everything, but I felt like I got a lot of my brain goo into a tangible draft and it will help me organize myself this weekend! I didn't get everything I wanted, but I am getting somewhere! 

(Also, I think I spelled Weasley wrong like 8 times in here.... Please forgive me HP fanatics! I am only human!)

Thursday, March 24, 2016

East of Eden Writing

Next Steps and Draft

So, here we go. I will be using my annotated bibliography and some of the other sources that I've looked at, even just as references to keep me on-track. I have an idea of what paragraphs I want to write and a little bit of what I want to say. My goal: get my preliminary thoughts on paper. It will be a more skeletal draft than I'm used to writing, but it's a start.

Update
So I ended up with less sources and more thoughts, which I thought was fine for a super messy, preliminary write-up. I think I did get down my most basic outline, which was the goal. Again, sorry that it's so choppy:

            The concept of “timshel” is very valid and well-supported in this epic novel. It is the character of Lee, the Chinese immigrant who raises Adam’s twin boys Aron and Caleb, who goes by “Cal”. During his years of research on the Bible, Lee discovers that in the original Hebrew, the word given with God’s commands is “timshel,” meaning “thou mayest.” Lee then states that “[this] might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man” to choose his own actions rather than being forced to do anything. (301) This is an empowering idea, as this allows all people to act freely, but it is also a responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions. No one is forced to do anything, so they must live with the consequences of whatever they choose to do. This is shown very poignantly in the final meeting of Cathy, then Kate, and her husband Adam. When Adam finds her in her prostitution house, Kate believes that, just as before, she can use manipulation to gain power of her former husband. But Adam chose to confront her and his feelings of love for her, and in doing so, he saw her as she truly was. He could not be fooled anymore and he was free to act. He even “laughed because he knew that [she didn’t matter]” to him anymore. (323) Parallel to his choices are Kate’s very purposeful actions. She chose again and again to lash out and hurt Adam as much as she could with her blackmail, her lies and affair, and her sexuality. But Adam realizes and declares to her that she “hate[s] the good in [others] that [she] can’t get at,” which is “something [that she] can’t understand.” (321) Yet even though she, as a sociopath, cannot understand goodness the way that others can, she still puts for real effort to ruin others. That is not just her nature—it is her conscious decision. She becomes bound by her horrible, selfish choices when she loses power over Adam and therefore can no longer make choices for them both in the situation.
            Yet there is a paradox, for even though every person has the ability to choose for themselves, they each have a unique drive that causes them to choose the things that they do. There is something that motivates each person that causes them to act differently from others, and this thing can be defining. When Adam is forced to think again about Cathy, he must choose how to respond. Lee tells him that even though he is facing a choice, “[his] course is drawn. What [he] will do is written—written in every breath [he’s] ever taken” (376). Human thought and habits are both consistent and persistent. It is difficult to break free of our usual thoughts processes and perceptions.

            But it is a person’s right to choose that course, whatever their reasoning, that Steinbeck so highly praises. He declares that he would “fight for” every person’s right to make their own decisions because “the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.”  This is the thing that, above anything else, Steinbeck believes and wants others to know—that every person can and should make their own choices and should also rejoice in the fact that they can. He seems to find strength in the idea that we make our choices free of outside influences, even our nurture, as this takes away the most precious “freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.” In this way we come to rely more on ourselves and our personal progress as we journey through life rather than be shaped by the circumstances and factors outside of our control. For Steinbeck, as shown in this epic novel, this is the crowning glory of mankind—to be one’s own person and make their own decisions for themselves.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Drafting

I really liked the first time when we drafted by hand so that is what I did this time.  I will just post pictures of my drafts.  I didn't do the pre-drafting post but my goal was to establish a good opening paragraph and thesis that could drive my paper and then experiment with writing body paragraphs that were clear in supporting that thesis.

Pre-draft Plan: Harry Potter

Okay, super duper fast...

My plan for the draft is to basically start condensing all my post-y note annotations and my gathered sources into actual coherent sentences. It's going to be messy, and it's going to be a bit bumpy, but it's going to be fun. My first drafts are always a bit scatter-brained, but it's basically just getting the word vomit out and then arranging those words so that they start to turn into something. 

The discussion in class was super great because Kayla and I were going crazy with all the sources we'd found. There is so much information, the trick will be consolidating it. I'm excited to let off the brakes for one hour and just sort of fly down the mountain of information I've been stacking up.


Next Steps and Draft: Harry Potter

I'm actually excited to start writing! Sage and I had a great conversation about places we could go with our papers. We talked about exploring the different types of teachers there are and the comparisons we can make between them. Also, governmental involvement and its role and impact upon the education of Hogwarts.

 My plan for today is to just get as much as I can written in the hour of time I have. I want to write the entire time and, when I run out of something to say on a subject, move to the next thing. I imagine it may be jumbled, but my plan is to kind of see where it takes me.

Next steps and draft: Neverending Writing

Jonah and I discussed fantasy as I was exploring the roles fantasy plays in literacy, and more specifically the role of The Neverending Story. We talked about how fantasy doesn't get as much respect as it probably deserves for the role it plays. (Though in recent years, the position of fantasy as being looked down upon has changed a little bit.)
  •     My main goal for the hour is to get a really solid thesis hashed out. Especially because I'm still not entirely sure of the direction I would like to take.
  •     In brainstorm-fashion, I want to get sections written about the different aspects of the claim.
  •     If I have time, I will start threading them together, and organizing them.
  •     If I still have time, I will start fleshing these ideas out and pull in more research and examples. 
 

Annotated Bibliography


So. Long story short, Monday night I found out that someone had gotten a hold of my Amazon account and started buying all kinds of junk with my credit card information. I've spent the past two days in every level of you-know-where, so let's just skip ahead to the part where I finally upload that annotated bibliography and move on with the rest of my life. Sound good? Great. Let's go.

I Guess Now We Move On to Actually Writing the Thing

Based on what Rebekah and I discussed in class on Monday, I've got a fairly good idea of where to go with my paper. My thesis involves discussing paradoxes and contradictions in terms of each of the characters, but I'm also planning on analyzing the paradoxes of the environment they live in (the Congo under control of the Europeans, for example). My goals for today are to

Finalize the order of what I analyze
Figure out the best way to synthesize my sources together
Write at least a respectable portion of the rough draft, but hopefully all of it
Get in the right frame of mind to prepare to write the rest of the paper and drafts.

With luck, I'll get most or even all of these done during our writing hours!


Update:

Wow, that hour went by a lot faster than I thought it would. I only managed to get about halfway through the paper (of course, it's the rough draft, so the final product will most likely be even longer). But still, it helped so much to have this time to just plan out and write the paper! Here's what I have:

The Paradoxes of The Poisonwood Bible


Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible has been hailed as many things: a symbol of female empowerment, criticism of the United States’ interference in the newly-formed Independent Republic of the Congo, and even an analysis of the destructive nature of religion. However, though all of these readings of her book have merit, none of them quite encapsulate everything that The Poisonwood Bible is as a whole. Kingsolver’s novel is not just a historical opinion piece set to fiction, or a feminist work, or any of these, though bits and pieces of them are quite prevalent within the text. Regardless of other readings and interpretations of the work, what The Poisonwood Bible contains at its very core are the themes of paradox, balance, and contradiction within both the individual and the environment they find themselves in. The book, to summarize briefly, documents the lives of the fictional Price family as they move to the Congo on a religious mission to convert the people of the village of Kilanga. It is narrated by each of the women in the Price family: the mother, Orleanna, and her four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. Each woman has her own inner paradoxes and conflicts, and some of them find balance in the Congo while others only find more disparity.
But what about the Congo itself? It and the village of Kilanga are a veritable hoard of paradoxes and contradictions, all of which somehow meld together into a balance unlike anything else seen in the world. The Congo the Prices find themselves is the country controlled by Belgium, a contradiction in and of itself, being an African nation ruled by a king in faraway Europe. Yet another paradox the Prices find themselves in is the paradox of prosperity. According to a 1962 history of the Belgian Congo written by George Martelli, during this time “the Congo embarked on a period of prosperity unequalled in any other African country.” (Martelli 205). And yet, to the Prices’ eyes, none of this prosperity is evident in Kilanga. Orleanna describes how the entire village subsists on enormous amounts of tubers called manioc, and almost nothing else (Kingsolver 92), indicating that none of this prosperity has come to the ordinary people. Indeed, Martelli explains that the wealth was mainly in the large cities of the Congo, where a quarter of the entire population lived. This left the other three quarters out in the dust, and yet, the people of Kilanga still remain despite their seeming lack of any kind of decent living. The paradox of this, that prosperity does not cause the majority of the population to prosper, adds to the deeper meaning of Kingsolver’s narrative by bringing to light the idea that sometimes one’s idea of happiness or prosperity is not needed for another.
Of course, each of the daughters has her own idea of happiness in an environment rocked by contradiction. Rachel, the oldest, exemplifies the kind of paradox that fuses two completely incompatible parts. She clings with a fury to the ideals and culture of America, and becomes a living paradox of a Western woman in an African nation. Rather than keep the balance the Congo has formed, she attempts to assimilate her own views of how people should act and be compared to one another, and yet at the same time keep herself aloof from the natives she finds all around her. Her inner paradox shapes her actions; where Leah finds herself almost at home within the activities and culture of the Congolese, Rachel purposefully excludes herself in a vain attempt to convince herself that nothing has changed. Roy Cook writes in his book Paradoxes that “they are in one sense nothing more than extremely clever puzzles,” (Cook 1) and Kingsolver’s purpose in these paradoxes is to give the reader a puzzle to solve, with the solution being a deeper understanding of Rachel as a character and as a common figure seen in society.

Leah Price, the second daughter of Orleanna and twin to Adah, exemplifies the concept of balance between two sides. Unlike Rachel, who simply refuses to accept her environment as natural, Leah dives right in and learns all she can. Thus we have the paradox of a white woman attempting to live in a black culture, but also the balance of Leah now part of two worlds. However, the balance is not omnipresent; Kingsolver brings in conflict to disrupt this balance in the form of Leah’s father, Nathan Price, in order to examine this balance more closely by breaking it apart. Leah’s actions are not viewed favorably by Nathan, and he attempts to pull her back to Western ways entirely. In her Master’s thesis discussing the resolution of conflicts within Kingsolver’s different books, Catherine Altmaier points out that, because of this, Leah is “both the most changed and the least changed” of the Price daughters (Altmaier 15). She refuses to accept her father’s view that their cultures are mutually exclusive, and when she finally escapes his tyranny, she says in her words that “I don’t know what has crept in to take his place... [Some] trust in Creation, which is made fresh daily and isn’t lost in translation.” (Kingsolver 525) Only once she escapes a paradoxical view of the world can Leah find her own balance of African and American.




Next Steps and Draft: The Grapes of Wrath

Okay so me and Courtney discussed my ideas and really talked about fleshing them out as well as figuring out the exact path I will go with for my paper. We talked a lot about Steinbeck's life and how it influenced his writing. There was also a ton of synopsis of each one off our stories so that we could understand each other's arguments and direction.
Here's my writing goal for today:
1. Flesh out ideas
2. Outline and structure argument
3. Start backing up ideas with research
4. Not freak out about a time limit!

See you in a couple of hours!

Update: So for the one hour of writing #anxietytime I got together my white board, quote guide I made for the Vanity of Human Wishes and all my sticky notes. First I divided everything up into sections and then I gave a brief summary of where I want it to go. Now all I have to do is fill it in with research and actually write the paper!

 Here's what my work looked like:

The Grapes of Wrath and Vanity of Human Wishes 
Introduction
            Hook: How are we exposed to our own follies? After we are exposed to the vanities of human nature, how do we react? Is this what causes change? If so, what change do we want it to or does it bring?
            Introduce the Claim: Begin with the Grapes of Wrath because it’s the main source. Joads, constant struggle, stupidity of humans continuing to hope. Then move onto The Vanity of Human Wishes as the second primary source (used on as a juxtaposition for the Grapes of Wrath). Laughing philosopher, vanities of all humans, letting vices take over virtues.
            Thesis: Although The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, is perceived as a novel of triumph of the oppressed and a call for socialism, in actuality the novel exposes the vanities of human nature as described in Samuel Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes and calls for a return to God for the betterment of society.
            Evidence: See Body Paragraphs 1-

Body #1: Reason Vs. Stubbornness
            Grapes of Wrath: “But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over.” (After almost being killed, the Turtle still gets back up and tries again… WHY?)
“If a man owns a little property, that property is him, it’s a part of him, and it’s like him.” (This is the reason why the turtle gets back up, because it feels like there is something worth fighting for… is this stubbornness or reason?
“For a moment he was about to walk on down the road, but instead he sat on the running board on the side away from the restaurant” or “But sometimes a guy’ll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.” (It’s both! Reason and stubbornness. But I think in terms of this essay, I will argue stubbornness because of the fight that the people engage in.)
“Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. ‘You got to’ she said.” (Only reasonable thing! Not the best of options but needed for survival)
            Vanity of Human Wishes: “How rarely Reason guides the stubborn choice,/ Rules the bold hand, or prompts the supplicant voice/; How nations sink, by darling schemes oppressed,/ When Vengeance listens to the fool’s request.” (This is arguing the point of them being stubborn. The want vengeance, they want to rise up and live a good life without the demands of the government BUTTTT because they do it out of stubbornness, they will never get far!)

Body #2: Democritus
            The Grapes of Wrath: “You don’ know what you’re a-doin.” (Jim Casy, Christ figure, tells the police that they don’t know what they are doing, that they are judging the Okies, without even trying to understand. Crucifying the innocent.) “It’s all work” the preacher replied “They’s too much of it to split up to men’s or women’s work. You got stuff to do. Leave me to salt the meat.” (Casy talks about how silly we are to split things into men and women’s work. Vanity that there’s a difference and that we have to divide things up based off gender.) “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing.” (Casy remarks on his philosophy of human nature, it’s not black or white or even gray. It’s any and everything.)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “Once more, Democritus, arise on earth,/ With cheerful wisdom and instructive mirth.” (Democritus and Casy are juxtaposition because they both are preaching the same things and looking at human nature from a different point of view,. BUTT go about it differently – laughing vs serious)

Body #3: Change
            The Grapes of Wrath: “ nobody can’t keep a turtle though.” (turtle is a symbol for the people, for time, for the world and basically you can’t stop it. You can’t stop progression and there’s only 3 options) “She saw the turtle and swung to the right, off the highway, the wheels screamed and a cloud of dust boiled up.” (Option A: Try to avoid it) “And now a truck approached and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it.” (Option B: Face it head on, or C- which I don’t have an exact quote for- try to keep pace/pick it up like Tom). “Times are changed, don’t you know.” (And you can choose one of those 3 options but either way it will continue to move forward.)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “Where change of favorites made no change of laws, And senates heard before they judged a cause.” (We want…. We don’t want… BUT we don’t want to put in the effort ourselves.)

Body #4: Power
            The Grapes of Wrath: “The bank- the monster has to have profits all the time. It can’t wait. It’ll die. No taxes go on. When the monster stops growing it dies.” “Men made it, but they can’t control it.” (Power is something we want in a pretty box with ribbon topped with a bow but really it’s uncontrollable and when we create something with power we are allowing that to take over because no human can control the force that drives it.)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “Claim leads to claim and power advances power.” (It’s a never-ending cycle. What do we do about it now?)

Body #5: People in Charge
            The Grapes of Wrath: “Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.” (Sad life of being in charge, nothing you can do because POWER aka the monster is in charge and so these people HAVE to submit to its rule.)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “He views, and wonders that they please no more;/ Now pail the tasteless meats, and joyless wines,/ And luxury with her slave resigns.” (There comes to a point when being in power hits reality and it isn’t great anymore and so like the owners you have 3 options for how you can react… Which will you choose with the city lights become dull?)

Body #6: Education
            The Grapes of Wrath: “Mechanical engineering. It’s easy. Just study a few easy lessons at home.” (Oh how naïve! Is this how we view education and the educated? There is something more, promise!)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “Through all his veins the fever of the renown/ Burns from the strong contagion of the gown” “And Bacon’s mansion trembles o’er his head.” (it could all crumble, all the hard work, because that’s what it is, yet we still pursue it. It will burn in the end)

Body #7: Future Generations
            The Grapes of Wrath: “That lady that says I’ll lose the baby.” (What people do now, does have an effect on future generations.) “He guided the box gently out into the current and let it go” (Sometimes we have to let go and allow the future generations to decide what they want to do. (Raise a child in the way he or she should go and then let him/her decide where they will take it)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “from age to age in everlasting debt.” (What we do now will leave the future in debt. We won’t see  the consequences of our actions but rather we will see the consequences of the actions of those before us and the future will have to pay for what we have done, etc.)

Body #8: Second Coming/ Christ’s Reign
            The Grapes of Wrath: “She looked at Pa and Uncle John standing helplessly gazing at the sick man.” (We don’t know what to do without the Lord. We are helpless without him and so we need him to come back!) “And the two women looked deep into each other… She said, ‘Yes.’” (The women are live the servants of the Lord who understand his plan and know what needs to be done to help.)
            The Vanity of Human Wishes: “In life’s last scene what prodigies surprise,/ Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!” “To Interest, Prudence, and to Flattery, Pride,/ Now Beauty falls betrayed, despised, distressed,/ And hissing Infamy proclaims the rest.” (Our wishes and thoughts are vain but heaven’s are not. The truth, beauty, and good. Things fall into place when God is on your side.)

Conclusion:
Wrap it up! Like a crunch wrap! JK, not really.