And The Winner Is...

My Evaluation Claim!-

Although it is important to analyze the literary elements in "The World Is Too Much With Us" in order to understand the underlying theme that is emphasized through this, if the breaking apart is taken too far, one might lose meaning instead of finding it.

That is the one that I had posted in this post, and I've slightly revised it to this:

It is important to analyze the literary elements in poetry, such as that of William Wordsworth's, in order to understand the theme at a deeper level; however, as the taking apart of a poem progresses, one may reach a point in which the essence is lost and in which one is "murdering to dissect."

Well there it is so far! Thank you guys for your input! It helped me to choose between the two that i was thinking of and it helped me narrow my claim.  I received feedback from my peers through the comments posted on my blog post, and I used one of my personal media websites (Tumblr), from which I received some great feedback too:

And also a literature blog follower!-

I also made some of my roommates personally offer feedback throughout the weekend:

Overall, I felt pretty good about sharing the process of writing my paper with others!

The many possibilities of nonfiction!

I was excited to think that as a part of nonfiction week I would get to talk about something I love to spend countless hours procrastinating on: travel blogs. 

I really cannot begin to describe how addicted I am to travel blogs and how much I've come to view them as actual literary pieces as we've talked about social media in English class. What I love about travel blogging is the accessibility of it. The bloggers are able to instantly share their experiences pretty much as they are happening, and the readers are able to embark on journeys with them sometimes seeing real-time pictures of places that are thousands of miles away.

Of course, there is also the literary component of them. I have noticed that the blogs that I love most are those which are crafted in a way that reels me in, through the literary elements they employ to convey how they feel about their travels to their readers. One of my favorite travel blogs is Anywhere But Home:

"How can I even describe why? Maybe it’s the look of the city – beautiful, ornate buildings crumbling in the old town, towering blocky church towers, secret courtyard gardens and grape vines hanging off every house. 

Maybe it’s the friendliness of the people I’ve met – the family who spent 15 minutes bartering with taxi drivers on my behalf at the airport, the monk who blessed me in the metro station and enlisted passers-by to translate so we could talk, the women in the market who break into smiles when I attempt Georgian, or even my adorable new roommates."

A device, for instance, that is seen being used here is anaphora, the repetition of the phrase "Maybe it's the..." The blogger uses this device to create a sense of an enumeration of the countless things that one can find in Tbilisi, Georgia to love.

Do you follow any travel blogs you think I should also check out?  

Sharing Blog Posts: Scary and Rewarding

As a part of engaging in literature socially (LO #4) I decide to share my "Personal Narrative" on a separate social media other than blogger. I was a bit intimidated by this because I don't usually put myself out there by sharing things other than silly blurbs about my life, but I decided that I would try to publish something that was actually constructive and would perhaps allow me to find people that share my same interests (in this case my love for literature!) And so I did it:

 I waited for a long while and nothing really happened, but then, long behold, somebody actually commented on it!

 It was my friend who actually recommended the poem for me to use for my "Personal Narrative." Following this I called her, and we spent a good couple of minutes talking about what we each thought about the poem and our different interpretations of it. It was pretty great. Since then I've also had 4 likes on it and a comment.

I learned from this experience how wonderful sharing things about academia that you love with people can really foster a teaching and learning relationship. I was also surprised at how happy I was that people actually cared about what I had to say, and I think that this will encourage me to continue to share what I am learning with others.