Originally my plan for this final project was to combine my last three essays into one cohesive paper that analyzed technology and its influence on legitimate literature. I was going to focus on Storyland and then compare it to Frankenstein and Pinocchio to show that Storyland was not legitimate literature, while Frankenstein and Pinocchio were. After trying to compile all my thoughts into a six page paper, I quickly realized that writing such a paper would be extremely difficult and confusing. After talking about and rethinking my paper, I shifted my focus from Storyland to Frankenstein. My new plan for the paper was to primarily focus on Frankenstein as a legitimate form of literature and then support that argument by comparing it to the film Pinocchio, which is an effective remediation of Frankenstein and a legitimate form of literature, and also compare it to Storyland, which is not a legitimate form of literature. This focus worked better for my paper because my first two papers were Frankenstein comparisons and my last paper was analyzing Storyland, so I had a lot of material to work with. Also, by comparing Pinocchio and Storyland to Frankenstein, I had an effective counterargument with Storyland and support for my argument with Pinocchio.
I found this paper very interesting because the topic differed greatly from any previous papers that I have written. Most of the papers that I had written before were research papers with a definite argument that you had to make. With this project, I felt like I had more leeway to write about whatever I wanted within obvious limitations. Although this paper required some research, it more involved pulling all that we had read and learned from the semester into one paper. While I do not mind a research paper, this paper was refreshing in a way because it was different and we really had a lot of freedom in deciding what we wanted to write about.
With this freedom, however, came difficulty. For me, it is easier and clearer if I am given a specific prompt and told exactly what is required. With this paper, and our previous papers, I had to really think about and focus on what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I had a hard time deciding on what I wanted to argue and once I finally decided, I did not know how to approach the paper. I was not sure how to organize my thoughts effectively. I ended up writing out outlines, producing three drafts with different approaches, and talking to my professor to help organize my thoughts and determine what I really wanted to focus on. I usually do not put so much planning into a paper, but outlining and talking my ideas out really helped me to get on track.
My final paper ended up being a combination of essentially all four of my previous papers, but mainly the last three. My first paper focused on reflection and my definition of writing. The idea of reflection continued in this paper when I analyzed my own definition of literature and how I thought modern technology might be affecting literature. My second paper focused on close reading and drew parallels between Frankenstein and Genesis, a text that Shelley referred to in her novel. My third paper also focused on Frankenstein and drawing parallels with the film Pinocchio and my fourth paper focused on Storyland and questioned the legitimacy of it as a piece of literature. These last three papers provided the evidence for my argument that Pinocchio was a legitimate remediation of Frankenstein, while Storyland was not.
Throughout this semester, I really worked on organizing my essays and making my arguments more effective. I learned how to successfully use counterargument to enhance my argument and elaborate and frame my quotes. I also learned that writing does not always have to sound distant and formal. With the right syntax and diction, you can make your writing more readable by making it more conversational while still maintaining a formal structure. I think that I have really strengthened my writing though the Washington College GRW and English 101 classes, but writing can never be perfected. It is a constant process. I am still working on slowing down my writing and developing my ideas more. I am also working on strengthening my thesis and always drawing connections from my paper back to my thesis.
