Sierra's final project idea

I as little worried when I read about option 1 and found it to be more of a research paper than option 2 so I am going to option number 2. Many reasons led me to this decision and the first one is, I get to expand my ideas and interpretations of what history and I think this topic is based around. I love doing outside research on a topic that I fancy as well because I believe it really helps make the paper in the end; the more passion behind it the better, the more effort the better as well.  I choose to pick zombies out of the lineup because they have many different options as to what they represent to society. One primary text I may use is the “zombie survival guide” they speak about belief in zombies since the dawn of time. Another source I feels helps this topic would be Stephen Kings “Pet Semetary” this book may not define a modern zombie but it has a unique way of describing life after death. With this prodject I hope to get a better understanding of monsters and what different ones truly mean. Doing the research on zombies and configuring all the ways zombies have been used throughout time will be fun and a good topic for me to keep focused on. As for the other sources, I have so many movies, t.v shows, articles and books to read about zombies I’m sure I will find something somewhere. I am eager to see if I can find a zombie book at the local library…

Midterm check in for Sierra Logan

During this semester I was really nervous to get started with school. This has been the most credits I have taken at once while working full time but I have been working really hard towards my Associates of Arts degree. The biggest challenge English 102 has caused me is just within the extra credit, I really wish I could make it to the main campus more but I live so far away it’s hard to commit to that. Otherwise this class has been great and I have been managing my time well. The biggest success has been using the blog; I truly think having a class on a blog role together is a simple and fast way to have everyone communicate with each other while reading each other’s work. Reading Frankenstein the second time was more fun that the first time I read it a few years ago. This time around I really understood parts of the book better and followed Mary Shelley’s way of writing much better than the last time. After taking this class I realize I really enjoy writing literary analysis much better than any other style of paper English has had me write in the past. My Eng 101 class was based on Pop Culture and throughout the whole semester I feel like I had no idea what was going on or what was the point of writing based on Popular Culture. It’s good to have a class that you feel confident in writing papers in and feel you are grasping the lesson at hand.

This second half of the semester I plan to keep on keeping on;  working  towards good grades and eventually graduating from Yavapai then transferring to NAU for my BA in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Improving my vocabulary and sentence flow is the number one thing I am going to work on the next few weeks but I already have seen am improvement since the start. 

Sierra's essay Shelley and Frankenstein

In the book Frankenstein there is a section called “Modern Criticism” which gives writers the chance to analyze specific parts of the book. The first story in this section is by a man by the name of Christopher Small; his essay is called Shelley and Frankenstein. It’s written in modern time and tells and about Smalls opinion on who Mary Shelley was and how her and Victor Frankenstein may be the same person. Small opens up talking about how he feels Shelley is not the only one who deserves credit for Frankenstein but her mentor Byron, who told her to “write a ghost story”. He also believes the personality types of the two (character and author) are extremely similar; for one he talks about the age being similar and having had Shelley speak about similar wants and need, such as Victor desires. Characters in the book, such as Elizabeth, which was the name of Shelley’s mother, resemble aspects in Mary’s life which Small believes she did on purpose. Physically Victor and Shelley were the same age and possibly had the same mindsets, Small mentions that maybe she did all of this not intentionally but without knowing, stating, “Frankenstein himself is clearly and to some extent must intentionally have been a portrayal of Shelley, and Shelley can scarcely have been unaware of it, if only on account of his name.”[Small 205] It may have been possible that Shelley created a story from an idea that bloomed. She may have taken issues going on in her life out of the book, and created a wonderful story without such a wonderful ending.

Reading all the sections in this book made me look at the story in a different view than I had before. It opened my eyes to see the real meaning behind the relationships going on in the book and how things like deep thoughts and grotesque creatures can add more to the emotion in the story.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein: the 1818 Text, Contexts, Nineteenth-century Responses, Modern Criticism. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. First ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.

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Self Revision - Sierra Logan

Just hearing the world revision make me cringe. I have always enjoyed writing but have never been good at looking it over or sharing it with people. Until my first year in college I had a really hard time going back and reading over my papers to make sure they not only sounded good, but made sure the flow and organization was spot on. I learned the hard way when I was getting papers back that were graded not to my expectation but I knew I was at fault as to why I was getting these grades. I had to make myself once re-read a paper and improve what I saw. I found I made a lot of mistakes where I though some of the best ideas were coming from and to me if I would have left it messed up the power of my statement might not hold nearly the same gratitude If the reader cannot understand it. I have begun letting others read my papers to as long as they agree to give an unbiased opinion and judge it for what makes sense and if they understand the point I’m trying to convey.

In the end proof reading and revising your paper with organization, argument, thesis, and flow in mind the paper should come out better that expected. I believe it is worth putting in the extra time to get a better grade and also develop good writing skills.