The End.

So I submitted my paper to three different venues as mentioned in a previous post. BYU Scholars Archive, AWE: A Woman's Experience, and The International Student Journal. It was scary at first, but now that it's done I feel more confident. I am excited to explore more publishing options with upcoming projects that I have in mind.

Goodbye to all my classmate bloggers! I say goodbye to this blog, but not to blogging. Here is my finished product. What a journey! I've learned so much.

A Thousand Splendid Words

Well, it's been a journey.  A journey of a thousand splendid hours, sources, and words to get to where I am now.  And here's the final draft of my paper, titled A Thousand Splendid Suns and Sons.

I always knew that I wanted to write about Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns.  While I am not a strong advocate for feminism in America (simply because I feel that feminists should work on getting other countries to where we are now in regards to women's rights) I am a strong advocate for feminism in the Middle East.  I remember the first time I had heard that it is legal and encouraged to kill a female family member for "dishonoring" your family--such as having a baby out of wedlock.  I was appalled, and all of the sudden, advancing feminist agendas in America didn't seem that important when there are still areas in the world where they can kill their daughters for having sex--legally kill their daughters--without a trial.  It's absolutely wrong.  And there is no way to make it ever seem right.

A Thousand Splendid Suns and my essay on it is the perfect outlet for my emotions and feelings.  And I hope that it feels like I poured my heart into this essay, because I honestly tried to.  I ended up submitting my essay to the Awl, an online New York based journal that publishes hot-topic submissions.

It's Submitted!

I recently submitted my paper to Student Pulse, which is an international online student journal. In order to submit it I had to change the citations from MLA to APA, which took some time since I've never used APA before. It was nice that that was the only restriction because they accept work from both undergraduates and graduates and the word limit was 2,000-7,500 (my paper is just over 3,250) Now it's submitted and in 2 to 3 months I will now if it's been accepted or not. 

Here's my paper with the APA formatting

And here it is with MLA (if you were unable to see it in this post).

This Video Took Forever

#technicaldifficulties

Finally, after a seemingly never ending trail of technical problems, I finally loaded this masterpiece to Youtube. Now the whole world can share it. I enjoyed being able to write about something personally meaningful that could engage further discussion from an informed audience. If I get a fair response from this short intro vid, then I might have to circulate it on the social webs. Anyway, you better appreciate this because I put too much work into it. Thanks, everyone. (I love you)

P.S. If anyone would like to read my finished Paper . . . there you go.

The Rabbit and The Hobbit Hole

Here is my video. Shared on my Google+ account.

Here is the Paper. I think the video is probably more entertaining. At least that is what my dad said in between deep breaths and laughter.

Faulkner and Carroll on the Little Screen

I begrudgingly shared a video of myself...talking...to a camera...on Google+. Here it is!

As reluctant as I was to talk about my paper on video, I am a little sad to let it go. It's occupied so much of my thinking time these past two months, and I might go through some Alice withdrawals. In fact, I'll probably read both books again this summer.

Thanks for a WONDERful semester, everyone!

The Last Melon

Alright, you guys. Here it is. The video introduction to my essay, which I shared via Google+. Because of this, Anonymous Gopher, Anonymous Wolf, and Anonymous Pumpkin are now reading "Woman, the Unsuccessful Colonist."

I have learned so much this semester about claims, the research process, and social proof-- all of which have been extremely helpful in learning how to become a better essay-writer. As I reflect back on the progression of my blog posts (which I now realize I was supposed to do on the 15th), it's neat to see the growth-- from absolutely no idea where I was going to go with it (as in "Broken Bangala") to beginning to gain ideas (like in "Displaced Female Colonist Loses Direction"), to sharing my ideas through social networks (in "Taking it to the Old FB"), to getting frustrated, bouncing my ideas off classmates, and finally striking gold with Edward Cutler, an American Literature professor with an incredible knowledge of feminism and colonialism and who also let me borrow four books that helped me out a lot ("How Conversations Spark Ideas"), and then, at last, to the point where I have a finished essay. (For those who would like to read it, here is a link.) This really has been such an awesome class and I have learned so incredibly much. I want to give a big "THANK YOU!!!!" to everyone! You've all been wonderful people to learn from and talk with. It's been a great class!

A Video is Worth However Many Words Are Spoken in the Video

Here is my video introduction of my final paper:



I shared this video on Facebook and Google+. Enjoy!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth? As I've stated previously, my final paper draws comparisons between Alice and Wonderland and Dracula. So, without further ado, here is my final paper trailer:

Beyond Expectations

I have had a lot of fun writing my research paper about the Phantom Tollbooth. I ended up deciding to focus on the importance of perspective in the novel, rather than identifying The Hero's Journey like I originally planned. To be more specific, my thesis was that "Milo saved the day not because he gained new knowledge, but because he gained new perspective." I made this change because I felt it was more close-to-home in my own mind and heart, and I figured it would make a more significant argument.

Here is a masterfully rendered video of me telling you what you just read:

And, for those curious fans of mine, this was my writing process

I had found plenty of examples of "perspective is more important than knowledge" in the book, so in a very rough-hewn way I slapped down as many as I could think of onto the page. Then I picked the ones that would tie together well, fleshed them out, rearranged them and polished them.

While I was doing all of that, I got feedback from my classmates (special thanks to Robbie!); I got ideas from people I had contacted on Goodreads and Facebook; and I found lots of useful articles and sources through BYU's Harold B. Lee Library website, lib.byu.edu. These sources of input helped me figure out what was most important to my paper and what I shouldn't care about so much, and I'm really glad because I had a lot of useless stuff in there to begin with.

In the end, I think the thing that helped me most to write the paper was my love for the subject. The Phantom Tollbooth has been a favorite book of mine for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got to sit down and take a more formal look at what makes me love it so much.

Last Post...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JAyLPzqA78

Here is the introduction of my paper.... I've done it so many times I can't even remember, but I'm still not completely satisfied with it. But I feel like it'll be 1 in the morning if I want it to be perfects...
I'm circulating the video through email to my family and my friends, and peers who helped me with the paper. I've thought about facebook, but I was too scared...
Enjoy.
Oh, and here is my paper.

I am Empowered

EMPOWERED WOMEN 

I have been avoiding this retelling, because it means that a journey has ended and my time with Alice and Elsha must at least come to a pause. 

Like a few of y'all have commented, when we first were told that we could choose the book for the next round of writing I simply chose a book that seemed like it would be not only intriguing to write about, but also one that would provided enough content that it COULD write about it. 

Things got a little more complicated when I realized that I would have to find common ground with “Winter of Fire” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. 

My first thought “Oh man!  How can I BS my way through this one??”  

The first couple posts online were done more for the assignment, and less for the growth and development of my ideas.  But then social media got involved.

After my first post to my peers via Facebook I actually became excited and invested into this project.  It was so neat to get input and ideas that sparked more and more thoughts.  That week after that first round of posts, my thoughts felt like dominoes — one thought or idea would set off another, which would lead to ten others etc.  Although I didn’t go the direct that those Facebook posts could have led me, I was now fully committed to the project at hand.

Hello to Youtube and Goodbye to this Blog

 Here's the video explanation I did about my paper that I posted on Facebook. In it, I summarize the main theme of my paper and how I went about analyzing it. I'm a little sad that this is my final post on this blog! Especially since its starts with an awkward thumbnail of me.

Apparently I Blink a Lot in Videos

I'm not even kidding, I've never seen anyone blink so much. I had to redo every little chunk like six times because I blinked the whole time. I don't think I blink that much in real life, do I? This project is throwing my whole world into chaos.

Anyway, I'm very self-conscious about showing people personal videos, so I've only shown this to a couple of friends and my parents, but there you go. A few people have seen the video and a few people have read my paper, and that's much better than it usually is!

Happy end of semester, everybody!

Faulkner, Carroll, and Me: A Brief History

What a journey this has been! The most amazing thing to me about writing my paper on As I Lay Dying and Alice in Wonderland is how much my ideas evolved throughout the process. I began with a general idea that I would write about how damaging some parenting styles are on children, and through my blogging process, I thought of many different styles that are represented in Alice in Wonderland. 

Yet, my ideas were still very broad. I received great feedback from my peers, and found, through them and my own research, many sources that helped me focus my thoughts.

One of the biggest turning points for me was Jessica's comment on my post where I discussed how different the two genres I'm studying are. She mentioned universal ethics, which eventually became a main focus point of my paper. The way that I was able to combine the two authors was with universal ethics: the idea that the morals that they believed in and wrote about transcend time and location. 

Signed, Sealed, Delivered...I'm done!

The deed is done!

Despite a tiny panic attack and some very sweaty palms, I successfully submitted my paper to a literary conference. This conference is for the organization called The New Direction in the Humanities Knowledge Community, and I thought my paper, about both literature and its accompanying media, might just fit right in.

Here's the link to where I submitted my paper proposal. 

Here's what it looked like right before I hit the submit button! Eeek!

How exciting is that?! And at last I mustered up the courage, believing that my paper was worth all this nervousness... and submitted a paper of mine to a conference, a very official one I might add, for the very first time! What an adrenaline rush!

Here's my acceptance letter!

Naw, just kidding. But it is a confirmation that they got my submission and will call me back about it in a few weeks. Here's to hoping I make it.

This has been such a cool experience for me. Although it has been stressful, and sure, maybe I've cried myself to sleep a couple nights (kidding again), but my confidence in myself has grown. I never thought I could even submit to something like this, and just in knowing that I can has opened my world up so much.


I'd like to thank my-

Kidding, once again. Man, I'm on a role.

But it really has been a great experience.

The Perks of a Video

Here is my introduction video of my final paper. I summarized what my paper mainly focuses on and how I supported it. I uploaded it to YouTube which does scare me. There are a lot of people (nice and not so nice) on there but I'll get over it. I also circulated it by tweeting and posting it on my personal blog on Tumblr. Also, am I the only one that gets uncomfortable watching their own video? I'm super self-conscious....

It's The End of The [Paper] as We Know It

This video is a summarizes the details and theme of my final paper. I uploaded it to YouTube, and then posted the link to my Facebook wall. The post received several "likes" and I heard from several people personally that they watched it and enjoyed it. I hope you may say the same. Below, you will also find a link to the google doc of my paper.

Final Paper

Empowered Women

I personally feel empowered after writing this paper and filming the video.  I'm getting my name and ideas out there.  Doing the video was extremely daunting, especially putting it up on YouTube -- which can be a rather unforgiving environment.  Posting my video to Facebook, where friends and family would see isn't so terrible (they love me after all!).

But after conquering these fears, I too feel like Alice and Elsha -- an Empowered Women! 

Enjoy!  

The Journey's End

Creative Commons License 2.0 / jayneandd

Initially, I had no idea what direction to take for my paper. I knew I wanted to write about Anthem, and I knew I wanted to write about either Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass, and I knew I wanted to tie the two together somehow, but I really didn't know which way to go.

Then I looked back at the Personal Literary Narrative I'd written about Anthem, and the thing I said I loved the most about this novel was the language. And then, as I thought about it, I realized that all of the papers I've written in this class so far have had some sort of linguistic twist. Language is my thing, apparently. And since language is such an integral part of both novels anyway, it seemed like a good topic to discuss.

But even though I had a topic, I still didn't know exactly which route to take. My first idea was actually to write about how language controls thought. I circulated this vague idea around to a few of my friends, who gave me some decent feedback and suggested that I talk about how language affects identity.

Education and Agency

This is my video presentation of my research on The Count of Monte Cristo. I distributed this among my social network by posting it publicly on YouTube and sending links to the video to my peers via Facebook and Email. 

My Odd Video!

There is more I should post I guess.  For one, I am not really sure how to link my paper, or rather how I should.  Should that be included on Youtube, or on here?  That will be included with this blogpost as soon as I finally get some sleep for the first time in a few days.

Anyway, making this video seemed a bit odd.  I realized that I had to write a bit of a script so I would know what to say, and not stumble on my words.  Just ignore the fact that my eyes follow a weird pattern... yo do not see that!

How to Richard, A Literary Journey

So, where should I start?

First of all, my process for anything is never the same, but very particular.  Even though things are always different for me, there are certain patterns I go through.  Call it something obsessive, or maybe even compulsive, but my writing is like my drawing.  All of my art is like each other.  As in drawing, I will erase
over and over and over and over and over again.  There is something about not getting something just the way I want it that bugs me.

This isn't to say my writing is perfect, but I liked this paper.  It actually would have been a much better paper to go with for some kind of dissertation or something... that way I could fully explore every single relationship, and how they relate to literature through different stories.  Granted, I am kind of happy with the page requirement.

A Little Paper Story

When we were asked to bring a favorite book to class, I didn't fully realize that those would be the books that we wrote our papers on.  So I just brought my favorite book, A Little Princess.  I wasn't very pleased when I realized that I would have to compare that book to Alice in Wonderland in a paper, because it didn't seem like the type of book that would work very well for a paper.  I also couldn't see anything those two books had in common.  Fortunately, I discovered along the way that it is very possible to write a paper on A Little Princess and that both books do have things in common.

A Journey to a Miracle (believe it or not)...

I almost feel like I've done some miracle for the past month... I've had a lot of obstacles on the way but I'm finished! Not that I enjoyed the process, but I feel like I've run a mile in that process. My finished product has somewhat changed from the direction I've taken from the beginning, but I feel good about it.


I remember when I first uploaded my first post, my personal narrative--which unfortunately had no comments (not that I mind). I was quite embarrassed to upload it in public view, but I quickly realized "everyone else put it up, so what's the use of being shy?" When I got around to writing my thesis, I was devastated not because I couldn't find anything in common between Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Sara but because I couldn't find the words to express/describe my thesis. My pick, Sara is not a well-known book. Its genre is spirituality and New Age (or metaphysical), which isn't really sought out by many people. It was difficult not to go into too much depth with my book because it would confuse many people who are unfamiliar with this kind of genre. That is why I needed help from my mom, who was familiar with Sara and also Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, who could guide me to see the similarity and differences between these two books without going off tangent with Sara.

"I Love It When a Plan Comes Together"

Creative Commons 3.0

From the beginning I knew that I wanted to write my paper about the narrator of The Book Thief who just so happens to be Death. Basically I had my paper planned from the beginning, it was simply lacking social proof and a solid structure. I knew where I was going, but I was still figuring out a details. Throughout this entire process I've received a lot of weird looks as I explained my paper to those around me. However, after the initial shock of my topic wore off, most people were willing to offer advice and some even got excited about it.

Research, on the other hand, was not as easy to come by. I scoured the Internet looking for anything that was even remotely related to my topic of the personification of death. Then I scoured the BYU library, and finally the public library. Eventually, I found an encyclopedia about mythology that had dozens of representations of death listed and explained. After that I had more ideas of what to search for, and research became an easy task. As I found those different representations of death, it became easier to compare them to The Book Thief. 

Down the Rabbit Hole of Writing: A Survivor's Tale

It’s hard to exactly pinpoint when the idea for this final paper really began. In some ways, it’s been building throughout this entire semester, becoming refined in each of the smaller papers we have written on Alice in Wonderland. From talking with Professor Burton in the paper conferences we've had after each one, I did start this paper with the intent of talking about existential meaning in some way. But I think the real beginning came as I went back to one of my favorite books, The Count of Monte Cristo and wrote about why I love it so much. I think a lot of times, being English majors, we forget this important detail as we get so focused in getting an essay done—that we love books. In this whole process, the only thing that kept me from despairing over my attempt to compare Alice in Wonderland to The Count of Monte Cristo was the constant reminder of why I love the book: because of its fascinating ending.

Life isn't fair, but it has its moments.

I concluded that the main theme of The Princess Bride is "life isn't fair, but it has its moments."

Creative Commons 2.0

In that vein, this is very much one of those moments.

And life very much isn't fair.

Researching for and writing this paper was a struggle for me, but the end result, surprising myself, I am proud of. Honestly, from the get-go I didn't think I would have written something good enough to be published. Now, I desperately want to share it. Thanks, Professor Burton. Look what you did to me!

It all started down a rabbit hole...

The Long and Winding Road

In the early stages of conception for my paper I, like many people, had no idea what to write about. Even in the middle stages of conception when things we supposed to be more solidified and serious, I found myself wondering how I was going to put my ideas together. Everyone else was coming up with themes of feminism or some other interesting topic that tied their favorite book to Alice in Wonderland. I quickly chose the topic of a biographical comparison simply because I couldn't think of anything else. I always had the thought “I'll change it later when I think of something better.” After a while though, it didn't seem like I was going to think of anything better.

There and Back Again: A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole

Literature and Illustration:

Upon reviewing my first paper for the class with Dr. Burton, I realized that I did not completely understand the elements that comprise a literary critical analysis. I feel like I now have a better understanding of what those elements are, and I hope that I have been more capable at displaying them in my writing. 

In our meeting, Dr. Burton discussed some of the specific elements of an analysis. We talked about how quoting from the primary text can be beneficial to quality analysis, and this was something I felt I already understand and used within my paper. He then continued to discuss the common topics of literary analysis that are used. This is where I realized that my paper and writing style were both very limited in their exploration of these analytical topics. I focused on plot and character in my analysis of Alice in Wonderland, and I could have further expanded my analysis to include discussion on Language, Diction, Tone, Description, Imagery/Symbols, Setting, Genre, Rhetorical Strategies, and other common topics. As I started to understand the vision of analysis Dr. Burton explained to me, I decided to choose another topic to explore, and I felt that illustrations were an interesting aspect of literature to investigate.

How to enjoy writing an academic paper:

The journey to my finished product has been long and not without turbulence. Yet here I am, with a literary analysis paper behind me and I really enjoyed creating it. Here is a little bit about my process and what I have learned from interaction based research.

In the first post I wrote on this literary research blog, I summarized the novel Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Annalee was the first to comment about how there are several feminist aspects in the novel that I could relate to Alice in Wonderland. I shared it with my Facebook friends and got a lot of people interested in the paper I was beginning to construct. Even though I was trying to avoid feminism, I took Annalee's repeated advice to incorporate feminist tones and it led me to my finished product. Until I was convinced, my first working thesis (or tweethis statement) dealt with control more than the role of women in literature. Sophie suggested I use more formal analysis and bring the author into the paper more, which was great since formal analysis is a weakness of mine. Annalee commented as well and expressed that there was still not a real "so what" in my argument. The only way to rectify this was to finally let feminism in and start talking about men and women as well as control. 

As I circulated my ideas to my friends on Facebook, I asked some general questions to get a conversation flowing. I asked what people thought about the book Ella Enchanted and was linked to some helpful websites. I also asked what people thought about feminism in Young Adult Literature. Later, I was able to get some helpful opinions about the definition of beauty. In a comment on my new post, Kate confirmed that what Annalee had been telling me for several posts now was true. I needed to address the feminism in Ella Enchanted.

Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On

It's time to leave the capsule, if you dare. For whatever reason, I feel like David Bowie's Space Oddity is summing up my experience in writing this paper. I had a hard time with this one. I psych myself out so hard that by the time it comes to really writing the paper, I'm burned out and too scared to start. So I have to put my big girl pants on and get some work done--that's the biggest thing I learned from this process. Oh, and if anyone else happens to be in the mood for some 70's-tastic David Bowie, I've got you covered.

The Perks Of Writing

This video clip is the end of the film adaptation of the novel I wrote about, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I wanted to share this scene with you all because it ends the movie and is also the conclusion of the novel. The main character, Charlie, has a line which says "...you helped me. Even if you didn't know what I was talking about or know someone who's gone through it, you made me not feel alone" which I think describes my semester. So many of you in this class gave me so much feedback and suggestions for my paper and it helped me tremendously. I'm so glad we were able to do things like peer evaluations, blog posts comments, and chat sessions because they were the biggest influences on my writing. I know now the importance of social proof when writing important things like this.

Help Wanted--From One Desperate Student to Another

Creative Commons / Jayel Aheram

Okay, so I know all of you are probably just like me. Completely swamped, busy with finals, and have plenty of things to do. But I am still writing my research paper, and would appreciate any help that anyone is willing to give me. 

I am trying to figure out how to form a cohesive thesis statement. I'm not quite sure how to make this a "research" paper rather than just a typical literary analysis. What I would like to do is talk about one of the following: 

1. That Education is tied directly to agency. This manifests itself in The Count of Monte Cristo with the Abbe Faria, who helps Dantes figure out why he was imprisoned, and then gives him the knowledge he needed to be whatever he wanted. When Dantes escaped from prison, because of what Faria gave him in education (not just the treasure), he was able to start completely anew.

The Mo(u)rning Has Come

“No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”

This is my favorite quote from Dracula and I think it's entirely applicable to this paper as well. (I used it in a previous blog post, so I might as well come full-circle by using it again.) This has been a long semester, but it's been a good semester. While at times things seemed dark, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we are almost through!

This paper has been a bittersweet experience for me. As an English major, I love to write... but I hate being given parameters for a paper. I hate it so much that I can have the whole paper basically written but then I refuse to do the final page or two. I don't know why, but I guess it's just my protest against authority. (Like when your mom told you to clean your room as a kid and you knew you needed to but you wouldn't because someone else told you to.)

With this procrastination habit in mind, I was afraid of writing this paper. I knew from the beginning that I just wouldn't want to do it and that I would be pulling an all-nighter just to finish it in time. Luckily, Professor Burton is a little smarter than I am when it comes to writing papers and he had us do annoying little tasks and blog posts. Or at least that's what I saw them as in the beginning.

I hate when teachers give me busywork and that's what I thought Professor Burton was doing to us. I was sick and I didn't want to do more than I had to on this assignment. But, I had to do all of the little blog posts and research and thankfully I did. If it hadn't been for those seemingly annoying tasks then I would have been up at all hours of the night in an attempt to finish my paper. Because of these tasks, I got to sleep (Unheard of for a college student, right?) and I was actually happy to finish the semester. My paper wasn't as strong as I would have liked, but that's just that for me.

Now that I'm finished with the paper and this class, I have that bittersweet taste in my mouth. I'm happy to be done, but I feel a little sad that I don't have a project to work on. I like keeping busy and this paper, and all of the buildup to the paper, kept me more or less on top of things and that was nice. Now I don't have that anymore and it's a little disappointing, although relieving.

Basically what I learned from this assignment is:

1. The best papers are hard work. Sure, papers can be easy to write if you have a knack for writing, but that doesn't mean it's a quality paper.
2. The best papers take a lot of research. Before this paper, I always skimped on my research. I didn't know how to research as well as I would have liked, but I also just hated the task of researching. But, this class taught me that researching can be interesting, especially when you find that perfect piece of evidence to support your claim.
3. The best papers take time. Where you spend your time shows where your dedications are. This paper became a big deal for me because I spent so much time on it. Because I spent so much time on it, I grew to love it and you should always love what you're writing.
4. The best papers make you step out of your comfort zone. I was not excited to write a comparison paper. That's my weakest form of writing and I didn't think I could do it because I had never tried it. But, I managed EIGHT pages of comparisons. And I now have something to be proud of.

This assignment was hard and I can't pretend to be sad that it's over. However, I will miss certain things about it, especially my growth process. I'm a different person than I was when I entered the class. I'm a better writer and I'm more excited to write and to take pride in my work.

(I'll post a link to my paper later tonight; I just wanted to get this up asap.)

I Didn't Think We'd Ever Get Here

This was probably one of the hardest papers that I have ever written. It wasn't that I was ill-prepared or anything. I just had a very hard time pulling the trigger and spilling my soul onto the page. I chose very early on to write about Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. I had reread the novel just a few months ago, and it was still fresh in my mind. I connected to Hemingway's "Lost Generation" and wished to write something that would do them justice. I mentioned this in my personal literary narrative. I particularly connected with the story's protagonist, Jake Barnes. I thought that he was such an interesting and complex character. He was deeply flawed and injured, both emotionally and physically. I had heard that The Sun was a story was without heroes. How could this be? How could these characters that I had grown to love and care for be villains or cowards. I remember the lesson when Dr. Burton taught that a thesis should be arguable, provocative, and divide a literary audience. The lights clicked on, and I knew that I had to defend my literary friends from the common perceptions and literary thoughts that marked them as antiheroes. My task was set.

Out On The Tiles

Creative Commons License 2.0

Last week I was able to aquire my final stage of social proof. I was feeling pretty confident with where my paper was going and at that point I was on page five. It seemed to me that I was nearing the home stretch. I only had a few more pages to go, and I only needed to go through one more round of social proof. For my "expert" level of social proof, I chose to speak to Dr. Westover, a professor here at BYU. Although he's not a specialist in the topic I am am writing on, he does have a Ph.D. in English, and as a result I found his insights very helpful. I sent him an email and presented my thesis to him and the direction I was going and he responded with several ideas. Here is what he wrote: 

pushing a publication.

So I know it's been a long time since I last posted, and I know that this post was due a while ago, but I wanted to wait until I knew for sure that I was going to submit my essay to a publishable venue rather than make a video.  I could make a video, but I feel that I would have more pride in my essay if I submitted it.  Not to mention, if I submit it, I think that it would be more improved than if I didn't submit it.

Professor Burton had emailed me about a week and a half ago regarding a venue I could submit it to.  It was through BYU's humanities program regarding women's studies.  Since I am writing about feminism and feminist writing by a male author, I think that this would be the perfect venue to submit to.  I know that a lot of you in the class are also writing about feminism, and so, I would like to include the email here for you to check out.  Maybe you'll also want to submit it here.

Best wishes!

Dear Colleagues: The Women's Studies Program is pleased to announce the new Susa Young Gates Award for Best Student Essay in Women's Studies. Please let your students know about this opportunity and as you read their papers at the end of the semester, please encourage your students to submit their best essays on Women's Studies for this award and our student journal. The BYU Women's Studies student journal, AWE: A Woman's Experience, is now accepting essays for next year's issue, as well as applications for new editorial staff members. Please see the information below and the attachments. Best wishes for a great end of the semester, Valerie

Funnies While Working/ Richard Enjoys His Paper

So...

I have been working on my paper and was on the topic of my thesis.  The general idea is that Jay Gatsby is not like everyone else in all works involved in my paper.  Can anyone guess what song popped into my head?

This song popped into my head.

By the way, I want to go off on a slight tangent right now fueled by my adhd perspective of everything and anything and all thing....s....

Did anybody ever watch Sesame Street when they were little?  I didn't realize how old all of that was or is.  When I was younger, the puppets/monsters looked more believable or realistic to me.  But I look at it now and I can't help thinking, "What kind of fabric did they use on Cookie Monster?"

I Came, I Sought, I Sherlocked!

Dear Technology,
You're great and all, but I think that you are too smart for your own, and MY own, well being.
Sincerely,
Gratified Student detective who has been hunting sources for her paper.

WEEKS!  weeks and weeks and hours upon hours have had me searching databases for sources that looked like they could be even a... tiny... bit relevant.  But there was always too much that seemed to cover too little and self preservation would kick in and I would shut down.

WELL NOT TODAY! {insert triumphal punch into the air like I'm a cool superhero or something!}

Harold, my dear library, today you just got Sherlocked! KAPOW!

... meaning, a computer wasn't giving me much, so I went to the shelves.

It's amazing what you can find when you do research the "old fashioned way"

Now I can fill my paper with the background it was so desperately needing!! 

Formal publications, here I come!

I have explored many different places where I could submit my paper about Gail Carson Levine' fairy-tale adaptations for publication, but I have come to the conclusion that the best place for it to go is to the BYU Scholars Archive. I have contemplated several guest blogs such as Interesting Literature but decided that my paper is too formal for that kind of blog, and the literature that I am analyzing is not "classic" literature which is what they seem to be looking for.

The other venue that I am seriously considering is called the International Student Journal. It accepts more formal papers and on a variety of topics. It's perfect for my Ella and Aza analysis! I am going to focus on those two venues now as I focus my paper throughout this week.

Addendum: I have also submitted my paper to AWE, the BYU Women's Study Journal since I am addressing topics of feminism in literature.

Two Outlets for a Paper on Faulkner

I am still very interested in submitting my paper to the BYU English Symposium. After attending, I know that it would be a great way for me to start small and learn how to present my ideas to a group of peers and professors. The English Symposium also accepts a wide variety of papers, which will give me a lot of freedom with what I want to say in my paper.

However, I also found a call for papers for May 1st. It is the Southern Writers/Southern Writing Graduate Student Conference located in Mississippi. The graduate students are putting on this conference and calling critical and creative works focused primarily on Southern writers. If I submit my paper to this conference, I will have to focus more on the Southern nature of As I Lay Dying and how that affects Faulkner's portrayal of the family. The conference is on the 17th-19th of June. I think this would be a good way to focus my writing.

...

I just saw Kate's comment on my most recent post, and she gave me a great outlet for my paper that I hadn't found yet! It's the CFP Faulkner and Print Culture Conference, and submissions are due in January. I will definitely be considering how I can tie my paper into one of the topics suggested in the information for this conference! Thanks, Kate!

Where to Publish? Where to Present?

I've been struggling to find a venue to submit my paper to that is still accepting papers. Like Kate, I plan to submit my paper to the English Symposium (at BYU) next year, but I need something that I can submit to soon. However, with the English Symposium I can't simply submit my paper for publication, I would have to actually present it to an audience. While presenting in front of people is not my strong point, I think that it would be easier to explain my argument through a presentation rather than a paper. I think it could be more engaging that way.

Update:
I looked into a site that Tori posted about, the International Student Journal and I think that it could be a good place to publish my paper. Also, I had completely forgotten about the Scholars Archive at BYU until I read Tori's post. So, that might be an option as well. Basically, thank you Tori for posting about your possible venues!

Trying to Find An Outlet for My Morrie Paper

Wikimedia Commons

As I've gotten further in my writing, I've been trying to find good venues for publication or presentation, and it's kind of super frustrating. All the interesting places I've found seem to have just finished accepting application or submissions. Grr. BUT I will find something, and I will find it really fast. I know I'm for sure going to submit it to the English Symposium for next year, but I can't do that right away, so I need to see if I can submit it to something sooner.

In preparing to submit it to the English Symposium for next year, I've found myself writing more consciously because if I present it at a conference like the Symposium, I'd actually be talking to people about it. I can write okay, but I really loathe talking to people. I'm just not good at it. So as I've been writing, I've tried to put a lot of legitimate emotion into it to make it easier for myself if I ever do get the chance to present it somewhere!

Battling Reluctance

So yesterday, while I was more excited than usual to write some more substance into my paper, I still delayed as much as possible in working on it. I used all sorts of things to postpone actually writing sentences. I don't know why I find it so hard to begin writing. But once I did, I was able to get a whole page down (woo! 3-4 more to go today!) so that's decent progress for me. From the ridiculous battle against my reluctance to write,  I did manage to find one tactic that did helped me just get going: doing a 5 minute free write completely disconnected with my paper. So as I head into today, I'm going to do another free write, and then just get going. If I need some sources to back me up, I'll be in the library so I can easily access that as I go. But what works for y'all in getting yourself to finally write?

Perpetual Change

As I was working on my paper, I feel like I lost a little of my new found enthusiasm. The task feels daunting once again. I realize that there is still much work ahead of me, but I do take comfort in one thing, and that is the two pages we were required to write and bring in for review a few weeks ago. Looking back at those two pages, I noticed that all of my ideas are very shallow and unfinished. One step I took for this assignment for the 4-5 page draft was to go back and flesh out all of those ideas. Although I have a tad bit of anxiety about how to pull of this paper as a whole, I do feel confident in the ideas I currently have. After they are developed a little more and expanded upon, I'll have a pretty solid portion of my paper. From there it should be easy to continue to develop on the theme of my thesis and keep the ideas flowing. I'm very interested to see where my paper ends up in its finished form.

Update...

So, I think I've had a lot of feedback from my mom and my friends, so I don't think I need more feedbacks from them. But as I've talked about in my previous post, I sent an email from back home. He has given me some good suggestions on what I can do with all the crazy ideas I have in my head. My thesis is ready to go, so I'm satisfied for now.
I've been very busy with mid-terms this week, so I hope to get a lot of my essay done tomorrow.

The Ultimate Tuesdays with Morrie Feedback!

So I chatted with Mitch Albom today. WHAT'S UP. I'm so excited. I'm actually kind of flipping out right now. Back story!

Maybe a week ago, I was chatting with Sophie about getting feedback from experts, and I mentioned that I was waffling with the idea of asking Mitch Albom some questions. She jumped on board right away, encouraging me to go for it. I hesitated and put it off because I didn't feel like I really had any valid questions, and I didn't want to approach a great author with dumb questions.

Jump to yesterday night, when I was having a small breakdown about my paper. I knew it was lacking the honesty and deliberate care I usually put into my papers. The subject I had chosen to write about was lackluster at best--I simply couldn't bring myself to care about it enough to write a paper I really liked. I went to my dad, feeling ready to give up completely. Sensibly, he sat me down and made me tell him why I care about Tuesdays with Morrie in the first place. I answered earnestly and quickly--I know why I love it. It's honest, heartfelt, and deeply touching to me. I love it.

So, ever the wonderful father, my dad told me to write about that. I scrunched my face up critically--write about love and feeling in a literary analysis? I didn't think I could manage it. But we talked things through and I finally came to a thesis and topic that I can really truly embrace. And now I'm excited to write my paper!

Now for the best part. I snuck into my dad's empty office this afternoon to work on my paper in peace and quiet. I got in the groove and was getting lots done when I realized that I finally had a question for Mitch. So I did some research and ended up on his official Facebook page. I worked and reworked a suitable question, and then posted it with low expectations but high hopes.

AND HE RESPONDED. Ahhhh! Best day ever. His answer was really interesting, and it lends itself perfectly to the topic of my paper. Speaking of which, I've finally decided on a topic. I'm going to write about the fact that Tuesdays with Morrie is not a literary book. It doesn't lend itself to analysis or interpretation--it simply isn't formatted that way. In spite of that, it is a very valuable, touching, sentimental text, and that kind of literature is very literary because the whole point of literature is (or should be) to make us more human. And that's exactly what Tuesdays with Morrie does. Not really elegant yet, but that's the general idea.

This Marks the End of Me Getting Any Sleep

I went to the library yesterday and read some different critical essays about Hemingway to get a feel for the type of analysis I was wanting to do. I found a lot of good sources that are shaping the way I think about my topic. As I studied more, my original thesis statement evolved into something clearer. Instead of focusing on the generation of characters, I decided to focus on the main character, Jake Barnes, and analyze him a little more. He is an intriguing character, and I can draw some parallels between him and Alice. So, my thesis statement is a little different, but I think it will help me get to the point that I wanted to make all along.

I've started drafting and I think I should be done by tonight. I'm still reading more essays and I want to really make sure that I can defend my argument before I go any further. I think that our peer review session on Friday is going to be a big tell on whether or not I made the right decision. I think I'm going the right direction with this, but I could use some feedback from my peers.

Here is my revised (and hopefully final) thesis statement:

Although many of the characters in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises personify the schizophrenic moral attitude of the twenties, Jake Barnes represents the resilient moral compass of his lost generation.   

Getting Something Onto the Page

My current challenge for writing this research paper is the "writing" part. I just need to start writing -- no more research, no more social validation (for now). I think I can handle adjusting my thesis (once I have one), or making my ideas coherent, or doing research or asking people for feedback... but only once I've actually started writing.

At this point, I don't see much purpose in trying to ask a professional a good research question before I even know what I want to do with my paper. And I need to actually have something on the page before I begin doing any serious research -- I have precious little time as it is to finish the essay, and I don't want to waste it panicking and chasing down references, quotes and essays which I will not end up using when what I most need to do is just write something.

While I've done a close reading of The Phantom Tollbooth, armed with my red pen, I've found quite a few topics that really interest me. My current course of action is to let the words flow out, putting my ideas down to the paper. I've loved finding puns, new perspectives, and repeated themes. I feel like there is a paper floating around in my mind, even though I don't know the thesis yet. I'll write the paper, then see the thesis spell itself out in the words.

Through the Library

Since we didn't have class today (Wednesday), I spent some time in the library looking up articles and books that might be helpful sources to use for my paper. Using various combinations of "Ayn Rand," "Anthem," "Lewis Carroll," "language," "linguistics," "thought," and "control" (some general searches, others combined more specifically), I found a few sources that I may or may not use directly in my paper, but either way could be helpful:

Major levels of  linguistics / Wikipedia

• an article about Rand's promotion of narcissism and worship of "This god, this one word: I" (which also slams Donald Trump as a politician)
• a brief abstract of a graphic adaptation of Anthem, made in response to a letter that Ayn Rand wrote to Walt Disney requesting that if Anthem were to be made into a film, she would like it to be represented with stylized drawings rather than live actors (so the graphic novel version apparently features stylized drawings)
• a book called Language and Lewis Carroll which sounds very relevant to my argument
• an article that puts Lewis Carroll's use of linguistics into the context of Victorian language theory--the idea of "autonomous language" wherein words have a life outside of the speaker, which actually sounds really interesting
• an article examining the historical origins of language and speech itself (maybe relevant?)
• a more science-y article about how automatic language processing is, focusing on neurological processes (probably not terribly relevant to my paper but still interesting)
• and another science-y article about whether or not thought is dependent on language (which actually should be very relevant to my paper)...

Baby Steps

Ah, a status report.

On Monday I posted such a report and wrote about how I need to visit the good ol' library once more.

Well, I did.

While some people love to watch the hours slip by while studying in the library, I have a really hard time doing so. I'd much rather be outside and eating something chocolatey and ice creamy. Anyways, today I forced myself to sit. And research. And think. And organize. Like crazy. And it was a good time to do it because it was a blizzard outside, which would've made it less pleasant to be outside and pretty ridiculous to eat something ice creamy.

Now, I'm proud to say that my little baby of a paper has gained a little chubbiness and is almost, almost ready to walk. I've gone through all my sources, organized them, and took out any quotes that I may use in my paper.

So here it is, my appropriately-named Big Baby Outline.

After this, it's time to get this puppy on its feet.