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.