Where has all the time gone? It just seems like only yesterday when this class started and now we are in the midst of our last research essay. According to the schedule we are already on week 13 and have only three weeks left. This research essay is a monster! I have just finished reading Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabokov for the research project and am going to reread the first part of Reading Lolita in Tehran to refresh my memory and pull pertinent statements from it to support my essay. There seems to be so much to do for this research project and I do not know where to start. It is a bit overwhelming and I feel like I should be farther along than I am.
I really enjoyed reading Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabokov. It was a really well written book with a lot of character and personality. If anyone has the time and is looking for a good book to read, I would definitely recommend this book. Nabokov thrills his audience with his style of prose and holds the reader captive with his writing. I think when this research project is over and I have more time on my hands that I will read Lolita next. If you go to Barnes & Noble you will find that they have many books by Vladimir Nabokov and all of them seem to be worth reading.
I am so stressed out and nervous about this research assignment that I do not know what to do or how to go about doing it. It is like I am drowning in a sea of information that I have gathered up to use for my sources. How do I incorporate this information into my paper? I have a lot of ideas of how the paper should sound and what I want to do with it, I just cannot decide on how to go about getting it done. I am definitely going to need help from the writing center on this one. I know that this assignment represents a major portion of my grade and that it needs to be as perfect as possible. Research projects are a major undertaking and if you do not give your all to the project it will show. I do not want to turn in a paper that looks or reads as if I did sloppy work or was too distracted.
I guess that I will just go about doing the assignment the way I always go about any writing assignment and that is one step at a time. Let’s just worry about rereading, Reading Lolita in Tehran and then take it one baby step at a time. I have searched the internet and have some really good information on both books. I guess the next step then would be going to the library and do some research so I can have some scholarly sources to cite. Then organize all the information according to what it pertains to and start writing the paper one word at a time. You know what they say, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” Now I must go off and eat my elephant!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
E-Mail has become one of the most popular ways of communicating in this day and age. Long gone are the days where you would write a letter, address it, put a stamp on it, give it to the post man and wait two weeks for a reply. Thanks to computers and the internet, we now have electronic mail. E-Mail has become part of our ever increasing now based society. In society today we want everything and we want it now! Thanks to E-Mail we can communicate anything in a matter of minutes as opposed to sending a letter and waiting who knows how many weeks for the response. Electronic mail has changed the way we communicate with each other, but at what price?
When we communicate using E-Mail our messages lose some of they’re personality. With using E-Mail we use a typical font that is somewhat bland and cold as opposed to writing a letter with our own handwriting. Our handwriting style has some basic characteristics that are unique to each individual that in a way puts our personal stamp on our message. When we want to express love we might use a flowing script style that helps convey the message and when we want to yell we might write in all block caps, which in a way can be done using E-Mail, but not as effectively as when we write it ourselves. How can you seal your letter with a kiss using E-Mail? To the best of my knowledge this is not possible using E-Mail.
Another problem with using E-Mail is you get a few basic stationary types to write with which are generic and everybody seems to have the same ones. The stationary you choose can be quite personal and you might want use different stationary depending on the type of letter you are sending and the purpose of the letter. Another drawback of E-Mail is it does not have the lasting impression that a letter has. Many people save the letters they receive from their loved ones as keepsakes. The stationary, the writing, and the unique little drawings and annotations on the letter are all personal and may carry special meanings to the writer and the recipient which cannot be conveyed using E-Mail. No one wants to print out and save a bunch of generic E-Mails as keepsakes although I may be wrong it just doesn’t seem personal enough.
I guess what I am trying to say is there are many drawbacks to using E-Mail but there are also many perks to it. I do believe that there is a time and a place for everything and E-Mail does have its place in our society. Even though we may not want to use it for letters to our loved ones it can be used just fine for a quick note, business communication, and a funny joke you wanted to share with somebody you care about. While E-Mail is here to stay it cannot and does not replace the unique handwritten letter from a loved one.
When we communicate using E-Mail our messages lose some of they’re personality. With using E-Mail we use a typical font that is somewhat bland and cold as opposed to writing a letter with our own handwriting. Our handwriting style has some basic characteristics that are unique to each individual that in a way puts our personal stamp on our message. When we want to express love we might use a flowing script style that helps convey the message and when we want to yell we might write in all block caps, which in a way can be done using E-Mail, but not as effectively as when we write it ourselves. How can you seal your letter with a kiss using E-Mail? To the best of my knowledge this is not possible using E-Mail.
Another problem with using E-Mail is you get a few basic stationary types to write with which are generic and everybody seems to have the same ones. The stationary you choose can be quite personal and you might want use different stationary depending on the type of letter you are sending and the purpose of the letter. Another drawback of E-Mail is it does not have the lasting impression that a letter has. Many people save the letters they receive from their loved ones as keepsakes. The stationary, the writing, and the unique little drawings and annotations on the letter are all personal and may carry special meanings to the writer and the recipient which cannot be conveyed using E-Mail. No one wants to print out and save a bunch of generic E-Mails as keepsakes although I may be wrong it just doesn’t seem personal enough.
I guess what I am trying to say is there are many drawbacks to using E-Mail but there are also many perks to it. I do believe that there is a time and a place for everything and E-Mail does have its place in our society. Even though we may not want to use it for letters to our loved ones it can be used just fine for a quick note, business communication, and a funny joke you wanted to share with somebody you care about. While E-Mail is here to stay it cannot and does not replace the unique handwritten letter from a loved one.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Writing!
Upon taking this English course I had no idea as to how much reading, writing and critical thinking would be involved. To say the least, this course has turned out to be very high maintenance. With all of the reading, writing, and critical thinking involved I would have to say that my writing skills have improved tremendously. I started out feeling very uncomfortable with the magnitude of writing that was expected of me in this course and ended up feeling quite at ease with it and actually enjoying it.
I think one of the things that helped me out the most was a chapter in our Exploring language book called Writers on Writing. The essays in that chapter gave me a lot of good ideas on how to personalize my writing. One of the first things that I learned was to write in the same way that I talk to somebody. There is no need to use fancy words and clichés to keep your audience interested if you do not use them in your daily conversations. When using big words and clichés in your writing it makes your writing seem artificial and you run the risk of losing your audience. Writing needs to sound personal and sincere to be taken seriously.
The next thing I learned is to be direct and to the point. This means you need to say what needs to be said and go on to your next point. Do not beat a dead horse, if you know what I mean. To be direct and to the point you should have a well organized thought out idea of what you want to say. When this is done make sure your writing is organized and thought out and not just thrown together in a hasty way. If it is, your audience will be able to tell and you risk losing your reader’s attention and your point will be lost.
One of the last things I learned was to have fun with your writing and write about things that interest you. When you do this your enthusiasm for your writing will be carried over to your audience. This will keep your audience interested and hanging on your every word. You should also make sure your writing is grammatically correct. It can be very frustrating for your audience to see blaring grammatical mistakes and typographical errors. When your subject and verb do not agree this, too, can be distracting to your audience.
Always proofread your writing for errors and use your spell checker as well. Writing can be fun and we can learn what we think and feel by writing. Do not be scared of it, if you do not like what you wrote, the good thing is you can always start over and try again. The last thing I learned is not to be afraid of writing, it may sound overwhelming to have to write an essay, so break it down into manageable pieces and concentrate on doing just a little at a time, then before you know it the essay is done and you ate the elephant using one bite at a time!
I think one of the things that helped me out the most was a chapter in our Exploring language book called Writers on Writing. The essays in that chapter gave me a lot of good ideas on how to personalize my writing. One of the first things that I learned was to write in the same way that I talk to somebody. There is no need to use fancy words and clichés to keep your audience interested if you do not use them in your daily conversations. When using big words and clichés in your writing it makes your writing seem artificial and you run the risk of losing your audience. Writing needs to sound personal and sincere to be taken seriously.
The next thing I learned is to be direct and to the point. This means you need to say what needs to be said and go on to your next point. Do not beat a dead horse, if you know what I mean. To be direct and to the point you should have a well organized thought out idea of what you want to say. When this is done make sure your writing is organized and thought out and not just thrown together in a hasty way. If it is, your audience will be able to tell and you risk losing your reader’s attention and your point will be lost.
One of the last things I learned was to have fun with your writing and write about things that interest you. When you do this your enthusiasm for your writing will be carried over to your audience. This will keep your audience interested and hanging on your every word. You should also make sure your writing is grammatically correct. It can be very frustrating for your audience to see blaring grammatical mistakes and typographical errors. When your subject and verb do not agree this, too, can be distracting to your audience.
Always proofread your writing for errors and use your spell checker as well. Writing can be fun and we can learn what we think and feel by writing. Do not be scared of it, if you do not like what you wrote, the good thing is you can always start over and try again. The last thing I learned is not to be afraid of writing, it may sound overwhelming to have to write an essay, so break it down into manageable pieces and concentrate on doing just a little at a time, then before you know it the essay is done and you ate the elephant using one bite at a time!
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