Rowen's Reflection on Literary Analysis 2

Informal, Online, Or Multimedia Sources

The book, Sea of Rust, is fairly recent, so it was difficult to find a lot of actual conversation about it online. Much of the informal resources I relied on had to do with my school of literary criticism, LDS Criticism. I used lesson plans from the Churchofjesuschrist.org website and institute manuals to inform my discussions of Restored Church of Christ doctrine. I couldn't site it since I don't have it, but I did also use the introduction to Asmiov's I, Robot to inform some of my understanding of robot fiction. Not a lot of that actually made it into the paper though.

Literary Theory

The main focus of my paper was LDS Criticism, which was a really interesting way to read a book that was largely focused on something I can only term atheistic concepts of deity. It was interesting to see how the various aspects of LDS doctrine and philosophy could be applied to a (probably) completely disconnected work of fiction. I also focused pretty heavily on genre criticism. One of the main points of my paper was how this book both utilizes and strays from the traditional conventions of robot fiction, and how those choices connect to the LDS concepts I was focusing on

Writing Process

It's really easy for me to write about things I get excited about. I was so excited for the Ozymandias paper, and even though it still needs improvement, I felt like each part of the process was much more natural. I had a much harder time getting started and moving forward with this paper, and I think that also affected how well it came out. I wasn't as motivated, so I didn't put in the work I should have to really make it polished. So that's something I need to focus on going forward, making sure I force myself to put in the right amount of work regardless of my motivation, because there are some projects I just won't enjoy as much as others. I'm also really struggling with actual formalist criticism. I have a lot of fun talking about overall concepts expressed within novels, but smaller-scale things that happen on a more formal level are really hard to reach for me.

Maddi's Reflection on Literary Analysis 2

• Informal, online, or multimedia sources
• I struggled a bit with this part of the essay. I found a lot of good content that influenced the way I wanted to write the book-- it gave me different perspectives and caused me to consider ideas that I hadn't originally noticed in "The Yellow Wallpaper". I felt that the material I found was very helpful and spawned original ideas, yet I wasn't sure how to incorporate them into my essay. The first thing I found was an art piece from Pinterest, depicting the woman in the text drowning, or being strangled, by the wallpaper. I loved this, because it was different from other pieces I had seen where she was trapped in/crawling out of the wallpaper. It showed that rather the wallpaper being a prison, it was more of a vice, and I inserted it into my essay to portray the hysteria I was referencing. Another I found was from a contemporary blog written by a teenage student, who found evidence within the text to represent an asylum-- and idea that I really loved! I wasn't sure how to use this in my text. Looking back, I wished I had used it early on to show how a modern take on the short story would look, however, I used it in my paper to outline these details, and then backed it up myself.
• Literary theory.
• I wanted to use a Historical/New Historical approach to the text, especially after looking at my informal source that brought up asylums. I wanted to use this a lot more in my text, but I found a hard time exploring it thoroughly while keeping to the word limit. However, I do think it ended up being effective, especially in showing the importance of recognizing hysteria within the text, and how it was used to create separation between peoples. It fit well with my formal analysis, as it usually does when looking at narrative or structure. In the future, I want to try to use a more complex approach to theory when blending it with my formal analysis.
• Writing Process 
• I spent a lot of time changing and developing my writing process. I started with a little bit of research to create an outline of the paper. I felt very excited and comfortable with it as I finished, however, upon further research, I decided to change my approach to the paper. Talking it out with my peers, and those in the class, really helped me to regain a comfortable approach to the paper. I decided to compare "The Yellow Wallpaper" to "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and use it as a way to bring the elements in "The Yellow Wallpaper" that I found to be significant. This helped a lot, and helped me to revise my outline. However, after my first draft, my paper didn't seem to have all the pieces I wanted it to-- it felt lacking and too wordy! I decided to go through and find quotes and arguments I wanted in my paper, that I felt should drive the paper, and created a new outline from there. I then went through and cut what didn't fit the mold! This last method really helped me to organize my thoughts and make a stronger argument throughout my paper. I feel that I need to better solidify my argument before/during my writing process and really stick to it. I found that my original argument wasn't fully formed, and it took me a few tries to refigure it. 

Hannah's Reflection on Literary Analysis 1

Prewriting was very essential to this paper for me. I felt that I was able to think of ideas, but it wasn't until I started writing them down in pre-writing that I felt I was able to have some clarity in my thoughts. Also, as I was pre-writing I felt that I got more and more excited about my chosen analysis and this motivated me to continue to work on my paper. The main aspects of pre-writing that really helped me was the paper that we filled out where we organized the different points that interested us the most in "Ozymandius", and then I began by listing my main claim and then my writing out my supporting analysis. Another aspect of pre-writing that really helped me was all the class discussions that we had, and hearing other people's ideas and the challenge of my own ideas.

Rowen's Reflection on Literary Research 1

I think one of the things that I appreciated most about the various approaches to prewriting discussed so far is the community aspect of it. I'm used to talking through ideas with my friends and family, but being able to see what other people are researching, and draw on information that I might not have seen in my own research was really helpful to me. That seems like it's kind of the point of research anyway- all research does is locate work that other people have already done so you don't have to do it yourself, and researching as a community kind of does the same thing. Why should any of us have to find the exact right article for our papers if someone else already has?

Dylan's Academic Writing Self-Assessment

   When it comes to writing eloquent and persuasive essays, there's still a lot I have to improve on. A majority of the time, I can have good analysis of a piece, but as I start writing the essay, I find I have trouble balancing the various points in my essay.
   An example can be found in an essay I wrote during the previous semester in my ENGL 251 class on Nathanial Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown." I found I had insightful analysis of the essay, in particular with a reader-response approach of the text. When writing the actual essay, it was difficult for me to maintain a good balance between analysis and summary. I tended to spend too much time explaining the context of a certain scene and not enough time explaining the effect certain literary choices had on the audience and how it accomplished that.