Matt’s Writing Self-Assessment

If there is anything I know about writing, it is that I don’t know everything. This semester I still feel like I don’t know everything, but that is okay because I know more than when I started. In fact, I can see the difference between my papers at the beginning of the semester and final research paper we turned in. One of my strengths coming into this semester was synthesis. I felt that carried through to my research paper and as practice does, it helped improve my synthesis even more. My weakness I wrote about at the beginning of the semester was reaching page requirements. I still feel like I struggle meeting page requirements, but I feel like I improved from where I started. However, the things I improved on this semester are things I didn’t know I had to improve on.

For example, I had no idea the variety of sources we had at our disposal when writing a paper. I was amazed at all the different kinds of sources I found for my research paper and how each source brought something unique to the paper that another source could not have. A great example of this is an image. An image is such a good way to help readers visualize an aspect of your paper that would have been difficult to describe. I also learned how to use informal sources to better my own understanding of my topic but also how those informal sources could help a reader gain a stronger base of my topic as well.

I also learned the benefit of talking about my writing. I never shared what I was writing about with my wife for my parents. But throughout this whole semester I tried to share my topics and things I have learned through my writing to my family members. Doing so has brought an increased passion and more solidified learning for writing this semester. I talked about my research paper with my wife and not only was I able to draw a few good points from our discussion, but realized that when I went back to continue writing it, the ideas came more easily because I spent time thinking about it outside of my usual writing process.

And this brings me to one of the most important things I learned this semester. I learned to improve my writing process. This semester and class encouraged me a lot to think about my writing process, something I had never done before. I used to jump straight into my paper with little thought of what I was going to write beforehand and hope it all came together. Now, I spend a significant amount of time prewriting so that when it comes time to write, my thoughts are already organized, and I already have a direction with my paper.

This semester was instrumental in helping me become a better writer. Not only did I improve on my past strengths and weaknesses, but it helped me discover other parts of my writing that needed work. I am a stronger writer now that I can use a variety of sources more effectively, speak openly about my writing and use those discussions to help fuel my writing process, and have developed a stronger writing process that prepares me before I even begin to start typing up my thoughts onto a word document.

Matt's Current Research Questions

I'm working on an ecocriticism and cultural criticism of The Road. I will be primarily talking about how The Road portrays and explains the odd obsessions humans have with apocalyptic scenarios.

1. Where are some good sources to find credible information about ecocriticism?
2. Are there sources out there that explain this obsession humans have with the apocalypse?
3. What is a sufficient amount of sources for a paper of 8-10 pages?

Thanks!

Matt's Annotated Bibliography on The Road

Working Annotated Bibliography: The Road

My researched has introduced me to new themes and ideas revolving around The Road. One of these main points is the symbolism throughout the book. Many scholars agree that cannibalism symbolizes over consumption in today's world. This got my thinking a lot about today's consumerism and future affects it can have on the world. For my next research session, I will focus on other potential symbols in The Road. 

[online journal article found on LION]

Estes, Andrew, Cannibalism and Other Transgressions of the Human in The Road, European Journal of American Studies, 2017, 

Wright, Laura. "Vegans, Zombies, and Eco-Apocalypse: McCarthy's The Road and Atwood's Year of the Flood." Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 22, no. 3, 2013, pp. 507-524. Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isu096

This article focuses on greed and over consumption. It makes the case that this is the disaster that ruined the world. It defines people who eat other people as zombies, which is an interesting idea. This will help me draw conclusions about cannibalism and its connection to over consumption.

[online journal article found using BYU database]

Estes, Andrew. "Cannibalism and Other Transgressions of the Human in The Road." European Journal of American Studies,' 2017, pp. 1-8. Directory of Open Access Journals, https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.12368

This article also considers cannibalism as a way to symbolize consumerism. However, this article gives a brief history of cannibalism which could be useful in future writing. 

[audio found using BYU database]

Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road.' All Things Considered, NPR, 7 Nov. 2006, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6449817?storyId=6449817 

This audio clip focuses on McCarthy's genius use of language. This could be used in my research by demonstrating the language used in symbolizing cannibalism as consumerism was purposeful.

[online journal article found on JSTOR]

Huebert, David. “Eating and Mourning the Corpse of the World: Ecological Cannibalism and Elegiac Protomourning in Cormac McCarthy's The Road.” The Cormac McCarthy Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 2017, pp. 66–87. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/cormmccaj.15.1.0066

This one focuses on cannibalism as well, but in a different light. It focuses on ecological cannibalism. In my research I could focus on the different kinds of cannibalism seen in The Road. 

[online journal article found using BYU database]

Bruyn, Ben De. "Borrowed Time, Borrowed World and Borrowed Eyes: Care, Ruin and Vision in McCarthy's The Road and Harrison's Ecocriticism." English Studies, vol. 91, no. 7, 2010, pp. 776-879. Taylor and Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2010.518045

This article focuses on mechanical consumption as opposed to other kinds of consumption brought up in my earlier sources. This article warns that if we continue consumerism as it is now, our posterity might end up living in a world as seen in The Road. This could be an interesting approach and a good way to start concluding my paper. 

Matt's Reflection on Literary Analysis 2

Informal, online, or multimedia sources
These informal sources helped me out a lot more than I originally thought they were going to. Mostly, they just gave me good ideas to roll with the writing my paper. For example, I was curious what other people thought a specific element of the setting meant in the book I wrote about. After some searching, I found some awesome discussions on GoodReads that really got my thinking and I ended up incorporating them into my final paper. 

Literary theory
This was difficult for me to incorporate into my formal analysis. After reading my paper I saw the value it brought to the paper, but it was difficult to know how much to put into the paper to make sure it was not the main focus of attention. I feel that I forced some parts into the paper that did not flow well that I felt I just had to put in to satisfy that part of the assignment. It was difficult, but I hope it aided the paper in the end. 

Writing Process

I think I need to do more prewriting for my paper. When I got stuck, I did not have anything to look at the get my juices flowing again. But if I did better prewriting then I feel like I would have more to talk about when I am actually writing the paper. I also feel that my revision process could be better. Sometimes though, I am so tired of reading the same paper over and over again that I get burnt out while doing the final revisions. I feel to strengthen myself as a writer I need to do more prewriting and do more focused revisions. 

Critical Approaches To "The Road" By Matt Kunz

"The Road" is a novel that tells the story of a young boy and father as they fight to live in a desolate world. The book covers many heavy subjects, including the value of life and the drive to survive. I first read this book a year ago and found it very re-readable. I think that the complexity of it and the heavy themes lends itself to be analyzed. 

[Biographical] 
I would like to know how McCarthy's life played a role in the writing of the "The Road." For example, I know that he has a very close connection with his son, so it would be interesting to write about some conclusions that could be based off that relationship. In the book, the mother commits suicide so I would be curious if the women in McCarthy's life influenced the mother figure in this book. 
[Christian Lit]
Looking at "The Road" from the Christian perspective could really bring out some interesting ideas. For example, the ending of the book brings up some interesting ideas about God. Comparing those ideas with who God is in Christianity could bring about some interesting conclusions and how they affect the book. 
[Ecocriticism]
The disaster that affects "The Road" is unnamed. All we know is that there is a lack of food and an inability to grow food. I think this could very easily be a good way to look at the book. There is obviously a relation to climate change here and looking at this book through an environmental lens could shape the way this book could be viewed. The people in this book are generally viewed as bad, so maybe it could be viewed that the people are the bad guys and the earth is the good guy trying to get rid of them. 
[Psychoanalytical] 
Viewing this book as a "collective unconscious" type would make for some interesting subjects. The father shares some memories before the disaster happened. These memories are generally happy and revolve around the family. I think however, this could be taken a step farther and say that they were not his memories but memories from his ancestors and he has an innate desire to experience those memories in this horrible world. 

Matt's Exploration Report

Focusing on "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe

We just read this poem in class and the way my professor explained it really peaked my interest so I wanted to do some exploring on the internet focusing on this poem.

The first place I went to was the all knowing google search bar. I searched "The Raven Edgar Allan Poe" and went to images to see what would pop up. The first image that caught my was a cool picture of a raven sitting atop of a skull. For some reason it was very Poe-esque. However, the image I most enjoyed was of a raven but with the words of the poem forming the raven's figure. I started thinking about the different meanings and what kinds of layers that can add to the poem by having the words of the poem form the raven. Below are the images references above respectively:
https://images.app.goo.gl/WyA6GbL1u3QbPppg7
https://images.app.goo.gl/KYxfd7ueypXFX1pZA

After searching google I went to Reddit to find some other information and posts about this famous poem. I stumbled across this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ravens/comments/evrpwn/today_is_the_175th_anniversary_of_baltimorean/. This link gives us some information about the Ravens, an NFL team from Baltimore. Apparently, the team is named after this poem. The link above takes us to this link: https://www.baltimoreravens.com/team/history/naming-the-team. This link takes us to the official site of the Ravens that confirms that this team is named after this poem. I guess the people in Baltimore really enjoy their Poe.

All in all I really enjoyed doing some exploring focusing on a literary work. I found some cool and surprising information!

Matt's Reflection on Literary Analysis 1

I have never done such in depth pre-writing. At first I was uncertain how helpful it would be. However, after taking a lot of time to look into some general literary sources and looking at the literary devices in the poem, I found that ideas came easier to me when deciding what to write about. Not only that, but organization became easier and so did writing a thesis. I really enjoyed learning about what everyone was writing about in class and I felt that sparked news ideas when I finally deciding on a topic to write about. In the future, I will try to do pre-writing like this to ease the writing process.

Matt's "Ozymandias" Prewriting

General Literary Resources - Genre Reference Works - Matt Kunz

I was assigned Genre Reference Works. While looking for resources of this type, I hope to better understand the genre of "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Having a better understanding of the genre will help me interpret and analyze it more thoroughly. Listed below is a brief annotation of the resources I found.

• Poetry Foundation
This website offers thousands of definitions related to poetry. This can clarify questions regarding the genre of poetry. The biggest use from this in relation to genre is that it provides a glossary of the different poetic types. For this particular poem, I discovered that it is generally considered a sonnet. Because of this, I found historical context, and descriptions of the different types of sonnets. Through a better understanding of the historical context behind a genre, it allows deeper and different analytical paths when looking at a particular poem or an piece of literature.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/

• The History of the English Sonnet (2014)
This source offers an in depth look at where the English sonnet comes from. As mentioned earlier, knowing the historical information about a genre can help one understand a poem better. However, knowing the origin of a genre can also help in the analysis process. Looking into the origins of sonnets, I feel that I can more comfortably understand different meanings behind this poem.
http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v3(4)/Version-2/H0342064088.pdf

After looking into these different sources, I feel that I could even start identifying what kind of sonnet “Ozymandias” is and start discussing how that affects it as a poem. Or even, how it would be different if it was written in another poetic style.

On a Bench on a Fall Day

By Matt Kunz

Surrounded by nature, I learned to see the world differently all because of poetry.

While sitting on a bench surrounded by nature’s beauty, I had an aesthetic experience. It was this sublime moment when I realized the impact poetry can have to me personally or to any individual seeking new perspectives. To Autumn by John Keats remains dear to me because it was this poem that led me to a changing realization. I gained a new perspective of fall, life, and the Earth all because of this poem.

Matt's Literary Moments

Poem for my wife [Creatively Composing]
This is all gushy, but every year for our anniversary I write a poem for my wife. These poems deepen my love for her and help me express my love in ways I otherwise wound not be able to. 

The Road [Sublime Literary Experience]
This book is full of heavy ideas. These heavy ideas combined with its dark nature makes for a book I had to put down on numerous occasions because it made me think in ways I hadn't before.

The Way of Kings [Reading Literature Privately]
This was one of those books that really inspired me to write creatively. I don't plan on making a living out of it, but expressing my ideas through fictional characters is something I will do for a long time. 

Ender's Game [Cinematic Literary Experience]
This wasn't one of the times where I reread the book because the movie was so good. I reread the book after this movie to remember that the book was good because the movie made it seem otherwise. 

Broadway Productions [Theatrical Experience]
I was spoiled enough to grow up two hours away from New York. I was able to see many of Broadway's masterpieces like Lion King, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and Aladdin. I remember being completely captivated by every single performance. 

Beowulf [Discussing Literature]
Recently, I had a class that discussed Beowulf. We talked about why and how society creates monsters and I found it very profound and interesting. I spent some time after class thinking about that and talking about that with my wife. 

Matt's Academic Writing Self-Assessment

In my Literature Review on the creative process I encountered a few strengths and weaknesses in my writing; one of both will be discussed here. Throughout my paper I had good synthesis of all the sources I gathered. I was able to use many journals and research to properly communicate the history of the creative process and present the latest theories in an organized manner. I noticed how this ability to synthesize my sources came slightly easier to me than it did my classmates, which made me realize that it was one of my literary strengths.

However, I also encountered a major weakness in my writing. I have difficulty reaching my paper's required lengths. This Lit Review was supposed to be ten pages long, however I felt the paper was finished by page eight. That leaves me with two pages of new information I had to include that fit along with my paper without seeming like new last minute additions (which they were). I had a hard time with this, but with some work and help, I was able to get to the required page length. This experience led me to realize that writing a lot is my weakness.

Matt's Shelfies

My bookshelf is depressing, so I took one at the HBLL.