Meeting my Learning Outcomes: The Final Roundup

We have come to the end of this term! This means that the time has come to asses what we have done to meet our learning outcomes!

1. Know the basic literary terms and methods
2. Know the basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write Literary Arguments
4. Engage in literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

Here is how I met them!

Learning Outcomes? Check!

At the beginning of this term, I outlined my personal learning plan for achieving the learning outcomes of our class.
These learning outcomes were:

1. Know basic literary terms and methods 
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write literary arguments 
4. Engage literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

When I made my first plan, I became aware of the gaps in my literary knowledge. I was reminded that even though I had taken AP Language and AP Literature in high school, those were not substitutes for continued active reading and learning. I knew I had to do better, not only for this class, but because I care about English and enjoy being able to talk about it intelligently. 

Reviewing My Progress During the Term

For my first post I made a personal learning plan which gave an outline of how I was going to accomplish the five learning outcomes of our Literature class:

1. Know basic literary terms and methods
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write literary arguments
4. Engage literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

When making my plan I identified where I was weak in my understanding and application of the learning outcomes. I decided that each week I would track my progress by logging my reading time in my posts and also by the content of those posts. After my midterm review I was told to make in improvements in the learning outcomes of Literary Terms, Writing Literary Arguments, and Creatively and Socially Engaging Literature. I also was told to not just use, but analyze new media which I have done in my more recent blog posts. I highlighted my new posts and improvements in green to show how far I have come in all five learning outcomes. I believe these posts represent the growth that I have had during this class:

Learning Outcomes Revisted

I've tried to dictate the content of my posts this term around our class learning objectives. The new stuff is highlighted in blue. How'd I do?

My Final Draft and How It Came to Be

To really get to the backstory of my paper, we've got to look back about...two years. That's right. Two years ago I began to embark on my journey of utilizing the internet for purposes other than Facebooking. I created my Tumblr and started actively using it. It took a little while, but I started making "internet friends," following people who were doing Cool Creative Things that I cared about, and occasionally doing a few creative endeavors of my own. I gained followers who I could share things with and it was really fantastic to discover this whole creative world on the internet that I had never known existed.

This is the point in my life at which the internet became something more than merely a homework helper or a time waster. After joining Tumblr, the internet became a place that was intertwined with my life.
Around this time I also became a much more active YouTube viewer, particularly watching vloggers. Though their YouTube videos weren't necessarily creative content, most of the vloggers I watched created other things in their "real life" - like YouTuber and bestselling author John Green, for example. YouTube became a place where I could interact with people who I admired, and who were doing Cool Creative Things that I could consume.
Add in some Twitter action, and the internet was a place that was really important to me.

Behold: My Paper

Well ladies and gents, the time has come, the unveiling of my final draft! It was road with many turns and changes, which ultimately led to a finished product which I must say is far better than its predecessors.

It all began as I started musing about what topic had most captivated me during this term in my English class. I discovered that there were two themes which I was most interested in exploring: the literary worth of non-fiction and what we gain when we analyze romantic poetry in specific. Finding both subjects very interesting, I became torn as to which I would choose! My interest for the first one had arisen from rereading Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, and pondering about the literary elements that made it stand out.  The I became interested in the second as I embarked on my personal study of poetry, exploring different genres and analyzing different works.

I decided to inquire the help of my social media coupled with that of friends and roommates in order to chose between the two possible topics! First, however, I created a list of the different types of claims that I would make. I then carefully chose which I thought were best and circulated them. I tried not to do this too bluntly, though. For instance, when seeking for help in my personal blog I posed my claim as a thought that had been circling my mind and wanted to share to see if others felt the same way. When talking to my friends and roommates, I struck a casual conversation and snuck my claim in (if I would have told my friends it was for school, they most likely would have not been as engaged!)

When I finally decided on a topic that I would address for my paper (The analytical tool as observed in romantic literature), I moved on to developing it by first testing what I would specifically talk about. By using Dr. Burton's suggestions on how to develop a literary analysis, I began to move forward with my paper as I did some research on genre and literary period. I also performed a close reading that allowed me to identify literary elements that would later help me support my argument.

Having done this, I felt like I was on good ground to actually start my paper! I then went on to create an outline that greatly helped stay organized throughout the rest of the process of writing my paper. I proceeded to write a first incomplete draft to obtain feedback regarding the direction of my paper. I received great feedback from my peers, (specially Jennifer!) as well as my roommates who I gave physical drafts to.

I took their advice and fixed what they suggested, moving then quickly onto writing one of my final draft, which I again circulated amongst friends in addition to the peer review held in class (thanks again Jennifer!)

My friend's comments on my paper

Until, finally... I finished it!

The Story of My Paper

I guess the idea the idea for my paper came from an Elder's Quorum discussion we had a few months ago on what it means to be a man. Later someone from our Elder's Quorum posted a video on the art of manliness on facebook:

The video talked about going back to the masculinity found in males of our grandparent's generation or becoming a retro-sexual. I found this very interesting and it was something I had thought about for awhile after our discussion. When thinking of ideas for my paper I noticed that made a lot of posts on Bond, my Grandpa, and Mad Men. I noticed that all of these post had a common theme. All of them were focused on a certain generation, particularly the period between the 50's and 60's. This brought me back to the video and discussion that left impressions on me a few months back.

The Final Final Draft

So I just wanted to post this final draft of my paper for your enjoyment and critique before I send it in to my professor, any feedback would be very appreciated.

Bond, James Bond: A Man For All Times

The world today has unique definitions of gender roles in society. Recently, there has been much discussion on topics such as gay marriage, the breakup of the family system, and the overall definition of what a man is in the 21^st century. Many of these issues can be traced back to the social movements and changes that happened during the 1960’s and onward. Because of the women’s rights movement many women today have equal opportunities in the workplace and have surpassed men in graduating college. These changes have brought a lot of benefits to our society because now the female voice has a say in many of the decisions that go on at home, at the workplace, and in the world. However, while women have risen to new prominence in their roles today, men have diminished in theirs. Men today are more self-centered, less masculine, and have lost their sense of responsibility. Men of our grandparent’s generation were dependable, took action, and they defined what it is to be manly. Popular characters of their generation like James Bond personified this idea of the alpha male and masculine traits. Actually, Bond was so masculine and direct in his demeanor that when the Bond novels first came out they were considered edgy by many and even downright misogynistic by some. Still, today he remains the man that men want to be, and the man that women want to be with. Although James Bond is a flawed and sometimes overtly sexist character, he does represent a kind of masculinity that men in our society desperately need right now.

From Musing Thoughts to Concrete Arguments

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch seemed to be calling me. I'd seen it in the "Great Gifts" section of Barnes & Noble at Christmastime, seen it at the top of "Must Read" lists on every book-selling website, and seen it on Pinterest with several thousand repins. When we were allowed to create our own reading lists this term, I decided it was finally time to read it. I checked it out from the library, a tattered burnt-orange copy that looked much older than 2008, with a frayed cover and worn pages from being dog-eared so many times.

I decided to begin with watching the original speech, which Pausch gave at Carnegie Hall. I first reviewed the book and posed the question "What would be my last words?" This would eventually develop into a thesis as I considered Pausch's last words and their authenticity. I began developing a thesis with a few different driving ideas, and posted them for opinions. I received great feedback from Jocelyn, Danielle, Sined, Dr. Burton, and Dawn, as well as the Goodreads page for the book and my roommates. Ultimately I decided on prompt #4 (the evaluation claim) because I felt it was an argument I could make logically and had solid textual evidence. I did, however, switch my view point to the book being the more authentic version after having my opinion changed from further reading of the text.

To begin writing the paper, I summarized the text. What points did Pausch make? What points did I make? What were the differences between the video and the book? I combed through the book line by line and marked spots where he talked about events prior to the speech, events in the speech's aftermath, and any reflections on the speech itself. This helped me to identify spots where I could make solid arguments.

Next, I had to answer the question why does it matter? Ultimately I came to the conclusion that Pausch felt there was more he needed to say after the speech in order to make his children fully understand, and that was why he wrote the book. It mattered because his message wasn't complete without the book. This became a central point to my paper.

After gathering notes and writing, I posted a draft and received feedback from roommates, classmates outside of class(thank you Sined!) and a great comment from Danielle. She brought up a great point that the book conveyed a range of Pausch's emotions as opposed to just the optimism in the speech. This also became a central point of my paper.

Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I wanted to write in a way that was real and honest, yet still academic, and I think this paper achieves that.

A learning outcomes review: How did I do?

This post may look a little familiar, but in actuality I've added quite a bit to it. Take a look at a summary of all my blog posts and how they fit in the learning outcomes for English 251. I highlighted all the new stuff in yellow.

Additionally, I was told after the midterm that I should refer more specifically to subgenres which I did in this post, this post, and this post. I was also told to refer more to literary terms which I did in reference to terms used with nonsense literature for my paper.

1.Know basic literary terms and methods 

• I identified some literary terms for fiction in Analyze Yourself.
• I took inspiration from symbolism in two texts we've read for class in my post, In My Purse.
• I identified poetic literary terms in my Personal Literary Narrative.
• I found more poetic literary terms in my analysis of Barbie Doll.
• I identified literary terms in my analysis of Since Feeling is First
• I used basic dramatic literary terms in my analysis of The Little Mermaid
• I talked about character in my analysis of The Importance of Being Earnest.
• I identified terms I was interested in when I looked for a claim for my paper.
• I learned about types of thesis statements when I wrote 5 for my paper.
• I identified useful quotes for my paper.
• I made two outlines for my paper

2.Know basic literary genres and representative texts

• I identified The Ice Queen as a fictional work in my post, Ice Cold
• I came up with things that I want to read and categorized them into category by genre. Out of the list so far I have read most of the poetry.
• I identified the genre of a book I was reading as well as the genre of another book mentioned in the first book in my post, Perception is Reality
• I identified an example of poetry in my post Poetry in Russian
• I found more poetry examples in my post Life's not a paragraph...
• I understand the genre of drama in my post The Little Mermaid
• I understand that The Importance of Being Earnest falls under the genre of drama
• I discussed drama in my post, It Runs in the Family
• I learned that my job involves me writing Nonfiction in my post, The Red Dirt Bride
• I looked at nonfiction in my post Pushed.
• I discussed the sub genre of nonsense literature.
• I looked at sub genres of fiction in this post

3.Write literary arguments

• In Analyze Yourself, I made a literary argument for a fictional piece that I wrote.
• I wrote a brief literary argument for The Ice Queen in Ice Cold
• I wrote a literary argument for a favorite poem of mine in my Personal Literary Narrative.
• I wrote a literary argument for Barbie Doll in my post, Poetry in Russian.
• In Life's not a paragraph... I attempted to write a literary argument for Since Feeling is First.
• I argued that the production of The Little Mermaid I saw was awful.
• I wrote a controversial argument on Oedipus Rex.
• I analyzed The Importance of being Earnest
• In my 5 thesis statements I made literary arguments
• The posts dealing with my paper were all about my literary argument.
• I analyzed and made an argument for Give All to Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson

4.Engage literature creatively and socially

• In Analyze Yourself, I attempted to analyze a creative writing piece that I wrote.
• In the post Why Write? I creatively talked about why writing is important in our community.
• I creatively talked about reading and literature in my post, Ticket to Everywhere.
• I creatively personalized poetry with my poem In My Purse.
• I creatively analyzed Barbie Doll by translating it in and out of Russian.
• Additionally, I set up a Good Reads profile here to engage in literature socially.
• I engaged in literature while reading The Importance of Being Earnest
• I told about my experience with drama in my post, It Runs in the Family
• I creatively wrote in the form of scripture for my New Social Media post.
• I asked friends to comment on my 5 thesis statements.
• I got great feedback on my thesis statements.
• I talked about why I chose my paper topic in This is Why
• I posted versions of my paper on the blog to get feedback
• I creatively told the story of my paper

5.Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

• I linked to my personal blog in Analyze Yourself, which is an emerging communication tool.
• I used videos of spoken poetry in my post Life's not a paragraph...
• I used video clips from The Dead Poet's Society to make a point about analyzing in my post The Dead Poet's Society.
• Here are a few posts that I had a good conversation through comments: this one and this one and this one.
• With the other contributors of this blog, I taught my English class about analyzing fiction through a jeopardy game.
• Additionally, all the posts I did were on an emerging communication site (this blog).
• I used color coding in my analysis of The Importance of Being Earnest to help readers understand the quotes.
• I talked about the benefits of social media in my New Social Media post.
• I searched for a claim for my paper by looking at past blog posts and comments.
• I got feedback on my thesis statements for my paper.
• I color coded this post when I analyzed the poem.
• I also talked to several people on the phone when getting feedback for my paper

The story of my nonsense paper

I got the idea for my paper while thinking about how to decorate my unborn daughter's nursery. That lead to a little research on the classic Winnie-the-Pooh stories which lead to some unpleasant comments on Good Reads that prompted me to defend such a fantastic piece of literature. You can read more on that here.

I started with a few different thesis statements to get the ball rolling. I came up with these after a close reading of Winnie-the-Pooh to determine what all the stories had in common and how I could implement that into a paper. I thought the biggest thing was the grammatical errors. That also seemed to be what people were complaining about in their Good Reads comments.

I got some great feedback on my thesis statements. The comment from my sister even lead me to what I thought would be my thesis. However as I continued to research, I realized there was more to the grammatical errors thing than originally met the eye. A second look at the Good Reads comments introduced me to the genre of Nonsense Literature.

Once I researched the genre a little more, I found that what I thought were grammatical errors were actually forms of implementing nonsense into the story. And from there, my new thesis was born. I was even able to compile all the quotes I thought were grammatical errors but turned out to be related to the genre. It was so helpful to do this, because I could see all the elements of the book I wanted to reference in my paper.

Then before I could begin writing the paper, I had to make an outline! I am HUGE fan of the outline. If I do enough research there, I've done nearly all the work of writing the paper. All I have to do is turn my half baked thoughts into complete sentences and BAM! I'm done. However once I started writing the paper and came up with a rough draft, I realized that my outline was a litte too detailed because I had too much information. It would have been great for a 10 page paper but for my 6 page paper, some stuff had to go.

After some serious re-working which included cutting and combining paragraphs, I came up with my final rough draft. But it was still rough which meant I still had some editing to do. I posted the draft in a google document and was able to edit it with guidance from my mom over the phone. It was cool because she could offer suggestions and then watch me make the changes from her computer in Georgia.

Once I was happy with how it looked, I created an after outline. This gave me a second look at the flow of my paper. It was interesting to see how the before and after outline had changed. Then in class, I classmate peer reviewed my paper and thankfully only had one big thing that confused him that I needed to fix. And what I came up with is a finished product, which I am happy to say is finished several days before it's due.

Now that's one of the best feelings ever!

My (sort of) Final Draft

Here's my sort of final draft! I'm still working on it, but I think I've made some pretty big improvements since my first draft. I would really really love feedback. Jocelyn pointed out in my last draft that my thesis was unclear, so I tried to fix that, and I would really appreciate if you guys could let me know if you think my thesis is clear and easy to find now. Anywho...

"So what do you plan on doing with that?"

I plan on pursuing an artistic career after I graduate. Yes, it's "risky." Yes, there are no guarantees of success. I understand this. I hear it all the time. I get to have the "what's your major?" "English" "And what do you plan on doing with that?" conversation all. the. time. My answer changes depending on the person. Usually they follow that question with "Teaching or writing?" And I take the easy way out by merely saying "both" and offering up nothing else. I'm sorry but when did people decide that there are only two possible outcomes with an English major? But really that's a tangent for another time. 

The point is, I want to be a writer, and even though loads of people can be discouraging about this, I've found it's important to hold onto the bits of encouragement I find. One person in particular who is ridiculously inspiring is Neil Gaiman. I really love this little video of him answering an aspiring director's question.

Soda, Headphones, and Chinese Characters: Writing Rituals

Last night while finishing up my English Literature paper on James Bond I noticed something. Every time I write a big paper I go through a certain process or a series of "rituals" to help me think creatively. First of these rituals is to get a 2-liter bottle of soda.

Bond, James Bond: A Man For All Times

So this is my final rough draft of my English Literature paper. I hope you enjoy it! And to the other students on the blogs, if you read my paper and comment I will read yours and comment. Thanks!

Father's Day

Totally random post! Yay!

Anyway, as you are all aware (or should all be aware) Father's Day is this Sunday.

Father's Day always brings one important issue to mind: what kind of present do I get for my dad? This is especially difficult if your dad is like mine, and already buys himself the things he wants.

And this year I finally came up with the most brilliant (and also hilarious) answer: BOOKS!

Why haven't I thought of this sooner?
(And why is this hilarious, you ask?)
Well, my dad recently admitted he hasn't read a book since high school. In his words, "unless you count the thousands of pages of paperwork I read for work." Sorry Dad, but I don't.

So then comes the harder part - which book do I give him? After some thinking, and combing back through my "read" list on Goodreads, I decided on The Things They Carried. I think it's a topic that he would enjoy enough that he might actually read it. Plus, since I've already read it, we can discuss afterward.

I could probably just get my dad a tie and call it a day, but I think giving him a book is a much more personal gift coming from me. Giving someone a book makes it a gift that you can both participate in, and it's a gift that will last through the years (after all, no one ever throws away books).

What are you guys getting your dads for Father's Day?

Ficiton Subgenre: The Signette: House on Mango Street

In my original reading plan, I decided to read House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It is a collection of....well, I'm not sure how you'd classify it (I'll get to that)...but together they all tell a story of a young girl living in Chicago, the people she meets there, her wish to escape, and her promise to come back for those she loves. I couldn't decide how to classify this book - definitely fiction, but what kind of fiction. It's almost poetic in its language at times, but it's not quite a collection of short stories either. I did some digging, and here's what I found:

vi·gnette  (vn-yt)

n.

1. A decorative design placed at the beginning or end of a book or chapter of a book or along the border of a page.

2. An unbordered picture, often a portrait, that shades off into the surrounding color at the edges.

3.

a. A short, usually descriptive literary sketch.

b. A short scene or incident, as from a movie.

tr.v. vi·gnet·ted, vi·gnet·ting, vi·gnettes

1. To soften the edges of (a picture) in vignette style.

2. To describe in a brief way.

---

[French, from Old French, diminutive of vigne, vine (from the use of vine tendrils in decorative borders); seevine.]

This seems to be the perfect definition to me. It's a collection of vignettes. None alone are long or complete enough to be a short story, but it's a collection of snippets that ultimately tell a tale. Exploring more into this genre. When looking up common examples, this came up: a blog. So while I thought we were all writing informally this term, we've actually been practicing our vignettes. :)

An after outline

I've heard of a lot of revision techniques in my days as a professional student. I personally employ reading out loud, printing it out and reading it with a red pencil to edit as I go, and passing it along to someone else who hasn't written it and can give me a fresh take.

What I hadn't heard of (until my teacher mentioned it) is making another outline after you've written the paper to make sure it flows. What a weird concept. But I think I'll try it.

My paper's structure did change a bit after I wrote and edited it. You can compare it to my first outline here.

Outline:

Introduction

• Introduce A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories
• Stories for children are generally to teach as they are constantly developing
• Compare to a story written to teach a lesson- The Story of Snow: The science of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino
• Thesis: Although many consider nonsense literature to be purely for entertainment purposes, much nonsense literature like A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories are actually valuable to learners because they not only help children grasp the concept of language, but they teach them how to sift out the sense from the nonsense.

Children's Fiction: Hans Christian Andersen

I try to read one fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen a day. Some of them are better than others ("The Flying Trunk" - good, "Little Shuteye" - not so good). The one I want to analyze for this post is "The Little Mermaid," which is actually nothing at all like the Disney movie. It's darker. She doesn't get her prince in the end, the sisters try to convince her to murder him, and instead of magically losing her voice, the witch cuts off her tongue. It has a gracious ending though, in which she basically gets to be an angel because of her selflessness and isn't cursed to hell like the rest of her kind.

There is a lot of rich language in the story, and I'm going to analyze it by highlighting the imagery,  anastrophe, and parallelism.

The little mermaid drew back the purple curtain from the tent door and saw the lovely bride asleep with her head on the prince's breast; and, stooping down, she kissed him on his beautiful forehead, looked up at the sky where the dawn was growing brighter and brighter, looked at the sharp knife, and again turned her gaze on the prince, who murmured in his dreams the name of his bride. She alone was in his thoughts, and the hand which held the knife trembled. But then all at once she threw it far into the waves, which shone red where it fell, as though drops of blood were trickling from the water. Once more she looked, with half-glazed eyes, at the prince; then she plunged into the sea, feeling her body melt into foam as she did so.

Historical Fiction: The Secret Life of Bees

In my original learning plan, I talked about wanting to read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. As a preface to this review, I would advise anyone who's thinking about reading it not to see the movie first. Not because the movie isn't worth seeing (it is), but it is one of the rare movies that follows the book to a tee. Having seen the movie first, there really were no surprises or unexpected plot twists I found while reading, or even moments where I found myself thinking "hmmm that's so different from the movie."

One of the things I was impressed about with this book was the way that it tackles issues of the theme of racism head-on. No beating around the bush. There are moments when she uses language that makes us cringe in our modern day. There are moments when the characters are so ignorant it makes you facepalm. But there are almost moments of surprise for Lily as she tests the boundaries of what she has been raised in.

It was foolish to think some things were beyond happening, even being attracted to Negroes. I'd honestly thought such a thing couldn't happen, the way water could not run uphill or salt could not taste sweet. A law of nature. Maybe it was a simple matter of being attracted to what I couldn't have. Or maybe desire kicked in when it pleased without noticing the rules we lived and died by.

The author does a great job of remembering the character's voice. Lily wants to be a writer, and there are moments when she writes like it, such as when she speaks in metaphors about how "salt could not taste sweet" in terms of attraction. She's conscious of the character's development and acknowledgment of the rules of society. 

There is a great scene in Chapter 8 when August asks Lily a question she has never been asked before - what do you love? It's a question she is thrilled to answer, but it also reveals a lot about her character in the things she doesn't say but narrates in her first person dialogue.

Right off the bat I wanted to say I loved the picture of my mother, how she was leaning against the car with her hair looking just like mine, plus her gloves and her picture of the black Mary with unpronounceable name, but I had to swallow that back. "Well, I love Rosaleen, and I love writing stories and poems - just give me something to write and I will love it...This may be silly, but after school I love Coca-Cola with salted peanuts poured in the bottle. And when I'm finished with it, I love turning up the bottle to see where it came from...And I love the color blue- the real bright blue like the hat Mary had on at the Daughters of Mary meeting. And since coming here, I've learned to love bees and honey." I wanted to add, And you, I love you, but I felt too awkward.

Her hidden feelings are discoveries are in red and are her thoughts, but the author uses more direct language to convey these. More straight forward. The things that are superficial, like loving Coca-Cola, she describes with imagery.

Overall, I'd recommend this book. It's easy to read, but the complexity of the themes and issues can be hard to swallow if you're not prepared. It has heavy content, especially in terms of self-guilt, but it's also this part that is applicable to our own lives.

Final rough draft of Winnie the Pooh paper

Ok folks, I edited my Winnie the Pooh paper so it's the right length, not redundant and it actually makes sense. I ended up cutting entire paragraphs, combining other paragraphs, and editing down others. So much to your excitement (I'm sure) it's 6 pages and not 10.

Here is the link to read the whole paper. Feel free to read it if you want. Or read parts of it. I always love feedback.

If you care to give me some feedback, please look specifically at how well I made my argument, my grammar and tone, and how well the paper flows together.

Let me know what you think with some comment love!!

Google vs. HBLL

Okay so, upon hearing that we had to choose a formal literary reference work I became a little concerned because I didn't really know how to use the library website. However, I decided to do a little experiment. I decided that I would try to find a very good reference on the library website and another one through goggle and see how easy it would be in both of them.

I swear the finished product is going to be WAY better than this...

My working draft! Keep in mind that it's a working draft, and I've still got a lot of work planned to put into it! But here it is for now. I would be super happy for any feedback.
Also, I don't have a conclusion yet. Conclusions kill me every time I write an essay. So I'm holding off on that at the moment, to spare your eyes from the awfulness that it would be.

Amateurs, Eh?

Since my thesis involves the rise of the amateur artist thanks to new media platforms, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the amateur writers littering social media sites like Tumblr. One in particular that holds my attention is Tyler Knott Gregson. He's an "amateur" poet known for his typewriter poems and daily haikus on the site. But is being an amateur really a bad thing? For him, all signs point to "no." Writing isn't Gregson's day job, (he makes his living as a wedding photographer) but his words still reach a wide audience, making an impact in their lives in the same way that poets in print impact others.

James Bond is needed now more than ever

So this is my early rough draft for my English paper I hope you enjoy and I welcome any feedback. Of course it is incomplete in its current state so bear that in mind.

Today we live in a world that has unique definitions of gender roles in society. Recently there has been much discussion on topics such as gay marriage, the breakup of the family system, and the overall definition of what a man is in the 21^st century. Many of these issues can be traced back to the social movements and changes that happened during the 1960’s and onward. Because of the women’s rights movement many women today have equal opportunities in the workplace and have surpassed men in graduating college. These changes have brought a lot of benefits to our society because now the female voice has a say in many of the decisions that go on at home, at the workplace, and in the world. While women have risen to new prominence in their roles today, men have diminished in theirs. Men today are more self-centered, less masculine, and have lost their sense of responsibility. Men of our grandparent’s generation were dependable, took action, and they defined what it is to be masculine. Popular characters of their generation like James Bond personified this idea of the alpha male and masculine traits. He is the man that men want to be, and the man that women want to be with. While James Bond is a flawed and overtly sexist character, he does represent a kind of masculinity that men in our society desperately need right now.

Genre. I mean Whoa Man!

After discovering that there was a sub genre of fiction called nonsense literature, I'm curious to find other sub genres of fiction that I've never heard of before. Here, I am having grown up reading Dr. Seuss and Alice in Wonderland, and nursery rhymes, never knowing that they were nonsense literature.  And now that I know, I'm much better equipped to understand and analyze them.

I never realized how helpful genre can be in analyzing literature. Once you know the genre and the techniques that, that genre implements it's so much easier to find those techniques and understand why they were used.

So here are some other sub genres of fiction that you might not have heard of before. I chose some books that I'm familiar with to describe them:

Glitz/Glamour romance- a typical romance novel focused on the jet-set elite and celebrity. Think Gossip Girl

Quiet horror- subtly written horror that uses atmosphere and mood to create suspense rather than graphic description. Think Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

Technological thriller- in which technology has run amok. Think Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Bangsian Fantasy- Stories speculating on the after life esp. of celebrities.  Think The Lovely Bones

Cozy mystery/crime- a mystery that takes place in a small town with all suspects present and familiar with one another. Think Lacy Steele mysteries like Morning Cup of Murder.

What I found most amazing about these subgenres that I've never heard of before is that I have read books that fit under each of the categories. Whoa Man! If you want to read about more subgenres, check out this website.

Teaching sense through nonsense with Winnie the Pooh.

Alright folks, I know you've been dying to know what goodies I've come up with in my Winnie the Pooh paper, so here you go. Below is the first paragraph and if you feel so inclined, click the 'read more here' link at the bottom to read the first 5 pages of my paper.

I'd also love your feedback on this. As I got onto the 6th page, I realized that this needs some heavy editing or it's going to be 10 pages long. So keep that in mind as you read it and feel free to suggest where I should cut and rearrange.

Picture this: a round, yellow bear, with Very Little Brains covers himself in mud, to look like a rain cloud of course, and uses a blue balloon, to match the sky of course, to float up to the top of a hunny tree to steal some hunny from the bees. You may recognize this picture from the story, In which we are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin, from the book, Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. Children love Winnie the Pooh stories, like the one described above. But most parents and teachers consider stories like Winnie the Pooh only useful for entertainment purposes. Reading for entertainment is a great skill for children to learn early on, because it builds in them the value of learning. Parents and teachers may choose other books for children to enjoy but still teach them something at the same time. For instance, The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino. This book is written in the format of a story but is still able to teach children about the world around them, specifically the science of snow. What many parents and teachers don’t realize is that Winnie-the-Pooh has the ability to teach children about the world around them in the same, if not better, way that The Story of Snow does. Winnie-the-Pooh falls under the genre of fiction, but more important to note is it’s sub-genre of nonsense literature. It, and other books of it’s kind have merit for more than their entertainment value. Although many consider nonsense literature to be purely for entertainment purposes, much nonsense literature like A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories are actually valuable to learners because they not only help children grasp the concept of language, but they teach them how to sift out the sense from the nonsense.

Read More Here

Ode to my Socks

Pablo Neruda wrote a series of odes to inanimate objects - kitchen tables, tomatoes, etc. In my creative writing class, we have been talking about the idea in poetry that you do not tell something, you show it. You don't say "she was sad and cried." You say "her eyes were dark seas that couldn't contain the waves escaping them." In this poem, "Ode to my socks" by Pablo Neruda, I will be highlighting the showing aka imagery and metaphor versus the telling.

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Neruda uses great metaphors here of the socks as "two cannons," "two fish," and "two long sharks" to describe the colors of the socks and the way he feels about them. He describes them with such adoration it's almost romantic

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.
Up until this point, the amount of showing versus telling has been clear. The author uses images to convey his feelings about the socks. He never says "I liked them." He says they were "sacred texts," and "rare green deer." It is only in the last stanza that he breaks his format and just spills about what he means.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter. 

Just a little outline

I have found that it's nearly impossible for me to write anything without having an outline first. After writing the outline I've done probably half of the work to write the paper. Between the outline and the research and reading beforehand.

So just for fun, I wanted to share my outline for my Winnie the Pooh paper. I like to make it pretty detailed so it's almost like I just need to turn it into full sentences to come up with the paper. It is pretty long, so feel free to just glance if you don't want to read the whole thing.

Outline:

Introduction

• Introduce A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories
• Stories for children are generally to teach as they are constantly developing
• Compare to a story written to teach a lesson- The Story of Snow: The science of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino
• Thesis: Although many consider nonsense literature to be purely for entertainment purposes, much nonsense literature like A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories are actually valuable to learners because they not only help children grasp the concept of language, but they teach them how to sift out the sense from the nonsense.

The Working Paper

Hey everyone!

I've started work on my paper and would appreciate any and all feedback! Thank you so much for taking the time to read it

The Rough Rough Draft

Hello everyone! So I've drafted part of my paper, and you can check it out here. It is a very rough draft as you will see, but I think that you might still get the sense of where I am planning to take my argument (I hope!) Needless to say that I will be very grateful if you could read through it and give me some feedback on what you think I can improve. To make this a little easier on you, here is a list of things that I am most concerned about:

• Can you clearly identify my argument and what I plan to talk about?- Okay so I gave a bit of a long introduction to Romanticism because it ties to my thesis, but do you think it is too long? Do you think that works for the paper?

• Are my paragraph to paragraph transitions clear? Does my paper flow so far?

• Are my thoughts well put together and coherent?

• Is my style fitting of an academic paper?

If you find anything that you think needs tweaking outside of this, though, please let me know!

Also I wanted to include an outline of my paper, just in case you wanted to see where I was going with it.

Thank you!

Are motivational books literature?

Whenever I think of literature I think of poetry, novels, drama, and some non-fiction like biographies or travel writing. But rarely do I think of motivational books as literature. All of the above genres I mentioned, with the exception of motivational books, involve some sort of narrative or highly stylized grammatical structure in their specific genres. With motivational or self help books I think of strategies or procedures, maybe the occasional inspirational story. But I don't think there are enough stories in most motivational books to consider them to have a narrative structure however. So I decided to look up what defined literature to narrow down my analysis and figure it if motivational books met the criteria. Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines

Literature
1archaic : literary culture

2

: the production of literary work especially as an occupation

3

a (1) : writings in prose or verse; especially : writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest (2) : an example of such writings <what came out, though rarely literature, was always a roaring good story — People>

b : the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age

c : the body of writings on a particular subject <scientificliterature>

d : printed matter (as leaflets or circulars) <campaignliterature>

4

: the aggregate of a usually specified type of musical compositions

So looking at this we can see that motivational books don't fit most of these definitions except for one. Definition c allows for motivational books to be considered literature because motivational books are centered on a certain subject. They are devoted to help people in their specific issues. So although motivational books lack many of the traditional conventions of literature they can still be counted as literature according to this definition. For me this might open other categories that I hadn't considered as literature such as self help books, blogs, articles, pamphlets and many more. As we start to consider what whether what we read is literature or not we we will be to analyze those works in a new light because we will be to use the techniques in literary criticism.

Exploring the Genre

While researching for my paper on James Bond I decided to check out the Harold B. Lee Library for resources. One of the books I was looking for was Harmon and Holman's A Handbook to Literature which was recommended by my professor as a good general reference book for our papers. After looking around for a few minutes I was able to find the newest edition of the book. I could see why my professor recommended the book as it has countless helpful definitions of genre and terms in the world of fiction. One that I found particularly helpful was this passage on Escape Literature: "Writing whose clear intention is to amuse and beguile by offering readers a strong world, exciting adventures, or puzzling mysteries. It aims at no higher purpose than amusement. Adventure stories, detective stories, tales of fantasy, and many humorous stories are frankly escape literature, and they exist for no other purpose than to translate readers for a time from the care ridden actual world to an entrancing world of the imagination.

Talking with my Grandma

I stated earlier that the reason why I am writing this paper is because of my grandfather. He was the one that got us all into James Bond in the first place. I thought that calling my grandma would help in writing this paper  not only because she is from that same generation, but because her and my grandpa divorced when I was really young and I thought she could offer some good counterpoints to my thesis. I had been circulating my thesis statement around for couple days on places like facebook and she was my last stop. Also as someone who was able to get a job and starting making her own money in the 70's and 80's I thought she would be more feminist minded and a champion of social change. I was very wrong.

Fiction subgenre: Dystopian societies

With the tremendous popularity of The Hunger Games, there has been a rise in the interest in Dystopian literature: literature that portrays a bleak future society. I've recently read and discussed with my roommates books like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Both of these involve government takeovers.

Fahrenheit 451 has a very interesting theme to me though. Bradbury suggests that the absence of literature will be our downfall. He paints a world where people have no interest in reading. They are more interested in TV walls. Suicide attempts are common. Firefighters do not put out fires - they start them to burn books. I started thinking about this and the importance of literature in our lives. Literature has the power to challenge our ideas and make us think more deeply about the problems in ourselves and society. Bradbury suggests that we will not have our freedoms taken from us, but will voluntarily give them up in favor of momentary happiness. I'm so grateful we live in a country where I can walk to the library and check out copies of the Bible, the Quran, and the Tanakh all at the same time.

What do you think of dystopian literature?