I think researching was the hardest part of the research essay. I could not really choose a thesis until I had research, but having a specific thesis or an idea about what I wanted to do would have helped with narrowing down my research. I guess thought that is just part of research. We are bound to read a whole lot more than we actually need to in trying to find the sources and information we need.
The hardest part for me is always the thesis; for this paper I started by agreeing with critics that said Sinclair’s story was the first of its kind, and ended up saying completely the opposite. I had all the research I needed, I just had to use it to argue something I hadn’t planned on. And yeah, I read way more than I needed to.
It’s definitely a relief to turn this paper in. I also ended up arguing sort of the opposite of what I argued in my draft of this paper. The most difficult part for me wasn’t the research, which I had plenty of, but interpreting my story in such a way as to need my research. Writing the first draft always takes me a very long time, but after that, I kind of like editing and improving my work. And the good news is we’re done with our longest paper of the semester!
I think the hardest part for me was connecting my research material with my interpretation of the story. It took me a while to see how they are connected. I started out saying that the story is just about lower class, but ended up saying that it’s actually about the middle class. I don’t even know if that made sense, but it was pretty fun reason about the information about Victorian Era. I agree that we have to read a lot more than we actually use for the paper, but some sources I have I thought was pretty interesting. and YAY WE’RE DONE!
I found this paper a lot easier than the other ones. I have always a harder time of strictly analyzing a story. With the background research, it was easier for me to analyze the tale.
I must say research was hard for this essay. Like Ben, it’s hard to make an argument when you don’t know if you have the research for it and it is hard to connect a thesis to information you have. This essay was hard and I am glad that we are done with it. One other thing is that after turning in my draft, I had to look up more information because my thesis had slightly changed the necessary research. This research process is definitely more work than research in high school where I didn’t use scholarly articles, but mostly the internet and two books. I look forward to seeing all of your presentations this week.