Happy Friday and almost Saturday bloggers! We here! We’ve reached the end, or almost end at this point. The hardest part is over and man am I happy for that! So for this weeks blog, it has to do with what we’ve learned while writing our research paper. It surly has been interesting.
First and foremost I learned how to write a research paper of this caliber. After much “pain in the ass” I managed to scrap one paper and start over on another. Now this was super stressful, but I really wanted to pump out some good work while challenging my writing skills. Relate one book to another is not the easiest task. I found it a bit difficult to parallel the two while keeping a sound structure to my paper. Plus adding in other sources without repeating myself a million times. Pretty scary, I was intimidated to say the least. But after I got writing I began to get the hang of it and the organization sort of came natural. I think I thought of it as too difficult therefore it became exactly that. I did have to go back and re do a few paragraphs reading it al the way through, but that’s the whole point of editing.
I think my favorite part of the whole paper was just getting to analyze the two novels. The subject matter was close to my heart as I too can be a dreamer, and idealist. Many of the things Gatsby and Nafisi encompass are things I could relate to. The intense obsession with a dream until you lose yourself in it. Its terribly sad to find that both Gatsby and Nafisi have there dreams end in defeat, but it the longing that fascinates me. I love how the two focus on the want and the longing for a dream and how that makes them who they are. It opened my eyes to see that sometimes we really don’t know what we want or what exactly we are hoping for. I sort of lost myself in the deep meaning that ran through both Nafisi and Gatsby, for me that’s the best. When I can become so divulged in something that I begin to feel a part of it. Not and outsider analyzing the items before me, but a player in the game experiencing these emotions first hand. It brings me back to personal anecdotes that came close to Gatsby’s ideals and Nafisi’s hope. I really enjoyed this part once the intense stress washed over.
This has been a research paper like no other, I can truly say I have never encountered something so complex and be told to make sense of it. Though it makes me proud of myself to be able to conquer something I perceived to be so difficult. Not only that but being able to become emotionally connected to the novels I am analyzing made the experience a little more enlightening. Analyzation came to a new level of critical thinking for me, and it sort of rounded off the semester by incorporating everything we’ve learned. I hated it and quite enjoyed it at the same time. I am sooooo happy I can breath again.
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I did my paper on that option, too, and I think it was harder than option 2. The synthesis of both books' ideas was a challenge. I'm glad you like the books. I did a lot!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is almost the end. I look at it as a bittersweet moment. I am so excited that all this hard work has actually paid off and we are done. I learned so much on my writing process. I feel extremely successful after this class. I definitely agree that writing this research paper was an interesting experience. I had the same problem with my paper. I could barely keep structure in my paper. I would try to organize it but I struggled. I am pretty sure that my research paper is extremely choppy. It took me a long time to organize my paper to the best way possible. I would rearrange my paper and I would never be satisfied with it. I probably rearranged it six times. I too chose to do the prompt on Gatsby. It was very interesting. I too enjoyed analyzing. I first read the book about five years ago. I then re-read the book and was saying to myself, “Oh this all makes sense now.” I understand the feeling I am a dreamer. I live in a dream world. I would rather live in the little dream world I had created in my head than reality. It really stressed me out too, but I was able to enjoy the book. It made me question myself what was my American Dream. I felt the same way. I was extremely proud of myself when I was finished. So we conquered together!
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