Monday, March 24, 2014

How Conversations Spark Ideas

The hardest part of writing a paper-- finding the "so what?" It's not that hard to write a well-researched and somewhat interesting paper, but it can be difficult to find a reason why it would matter to the reader. I was talking with McKay on Friday, discussing the frustrating brick wall we've run against trying to find the implications for our paper, as well as good "enthusiast" sources. As we talked and bounced ideas off of each other, I remembered a very valuable well of information that I had previously overlooked-- teachers! If those people are not enthusiasts, I don't know who are. My paper talks a lot about colonialism and I remembered I had taken American Literary History from Professor Cutler, a super helpful professor who loves talking and helping with papers and is also extremely knowledgable and passionate about my topic. He previously helped me write a rather fantastic essay on early American folk magic. Today, I plan on emailing him to give him a heads up that I will be coming in to visit him during his office hours. I'm sure that he could help me find other enthusiast sources (and just other sources in general) that I hadn't previously considered. For those who haven't read my brief, working essay on my topic, here is a link.

2 comments:

  1. You are so right! I think we often overlook the fact that, at a university, we are surrounded by many enthusiasts in our professors. I will definitely follow your example and talk to my English professor from last semester about my paper. Good luck!

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  2. So great! I just wrote a post about how bouncing ideas off of you helped me in organizing my thoughts and focusing my research. Here's to a great class.

    (Thanks so much for your help!)

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