Post #11

I cannot believe that the semester is almost over. I began the semester having only a vague idea of the author I wanted to write my thesis on. As the semester progressed, I’ve slowly but surely molded the vague idea into something more concrete. I was very surprised with myself and my progress over the Thanksgiving holiday; I actually spent some time going over my prospectus and making some changes. This alarming behavior of not putting work off until the last minute probably stems from the fact that I needed a small break from the family by Friday afternoon, and schoolwork is a very convenient excuse! I hope that this momentum that I have picked up during this Thanksgiving holiday will carry over into the Christmas Break and all throughout the Spring semester. I know that is a slightly unrealistic goal, but if I capitalize on similar bouts of momentum when they presents themselves, I maybe can get this thesis done in the end after all.
Finally turning in the prospectus will be a extremely harrowing experience. I have already looked over it dozens of times in the past couple of weeks, and I’ve moved from making large changes in sentence structure and overall ideas to obsessively tweaking word choice and debating over the use of commas. But eventually, I must let the prospectus go and STOP LOOKING AT IT. If I am having trouble with knowing when to stop with my prospectus, which is just the preliminary proposal of my thesis, I do not even want to imagine how I will feel when my thesis is done and I’m in the editing phase. However, I imagine one of the roles my adviser will play is to help me to realize when my thesis is truly done and when it is ready for submission.

Post #10

Editing has never been my strong point. Now, I do not mean that I've had difficulty making sure my subjects and verbs agree or that I am a repeat comma splice offender. I am certainly not a perfect grammarian, but a couple of read-throughs of an important paper allows me to catch any major errors that might be distracting to the reader of my paper. I find myself having difficulty with editing when I am asked to go back through the ideas that I have already committed to paper and discard those that do not make sense or are not relevant to my argument.

I naturally encountered this problem when drafting my tentative prospectus. When writing each of the four sections we had to submit for peer review, I tried to include as much information as possible. I did this in order to make sure I had any information necessary to my project located in one place (so I would not forget it or lose it amongst the shuffle of the dozens of other articles) and also in hopes that providing more information than necessary would make the ideas behind and goals of the project more understandable to a reader who had not read Salinger since Catcher in the Rye in high school. As I returned to the separate parts of the essay and attempted to re-write them as a whole, I specifically tried to keep from retreading already stated information and attempted to create a prospectus and thesis that, while including pertinent information, did not repeat themselves or inundate reader with extraneous information. I probably was not as successful as I might have hoped at this task, but I hope that it creates a more cohesive picture of what I intend to do than each of the separate parts did.

Post #9

Writing the methodology section of my prospectus was one of the most difficult parts, if not the most difficult part, of this drafting process so far. I initially felt as if my methodology could be summed up in one or two sentences. Simply, I’m using two different Salinger archetypes of children and comparing and contrasting Salinger’s children in “The Laughing Man” with two representative children found in “For Esme--With Love and Squalor” and “Teddy.” Composing methodologies for psychology or biology papers involves long descriptions of experimental conditions, subject breakdowns, and methods used to conduct the experiment. This could take up many paragraphs and pages of a lab report. How much really could I stretch out that my sentence? Everything I want to say about what I'm doing, I can do clearly and concisely in one or two sentences. I think I’m fairly talented at expanding upon an idea, but this exercise would test my abilities. However, as I kept staring at my computer and then began writing, I realized that it might be necessary to explain a little bit more about these types of children, how they are used, specific places where they can be found, and other examples. I should also define specific terms that I plan on using throughout my paper. To truly understand what I’m hoping to do in the essay, I need to fully understand these aspects of childhood and the three short stories I’m using and so does the reader. I feel a little wary about the fact that I may be repeating myself, and too much of the information found in my introduction or literature review is repeated in my methodology. Once I begin to piece together each of these sections to form a complete prospectus, I will certainly have to do some editing to eliminate overlap. However, I think my methodology will be most effective condensed into one or two paragraphs, as opposed to sprinkled throughout the prospectus.

Post #8

I feel like I’m going through extreme fluctuations in my level of confidence concerning my thesis. At the beginning of the semester, I felt relatively confident in my ability to write a paper...after all, writing is what I love to do! Literature and communicating my thoughts on literature and other forms of writing are the bases for (what I hope will eventually be) my career. Then I underwent a steep drop in confidence when I realized just how much work all of this was going to be and when we read numerous articles on managing stress and how few jobs there really are out there. However, now that we have started to put together the individual parts of our prospectus, my confidence is slowly but surely returning. Knowing that I can work through my thesis in a similar, step-like manner slightly puts my mind to rest.

Although I know my introduction needs quite a bit more work before I will feel confident including it in my prospectus, the peer review session really instilled me with a little bit more confidence regarding this whole thesis deal. I used to balk at the idea of anyone other than the professor reading my writing. Peer review sessions in grad school have helped to alleviate that anxiety and have shown me that sometimes the more feedback you can receive from your qualified fellow students, the better equipped you are to fix problems whose solutions have been alluding you. Much of the criticism I received in our peer review session included aspects of my introduction that I knew I needed to work on but was not exactly sure how to fix. I knew my thesis was a confusing mess, but I wasn’t sure how to fix it. I’m horrible at knowing when and how to split my thesis into two parts; I am afraid my thesis will be unclear and difficult to locate if it cannot be found in one sentence. However, it was the aspect of my paper that people criticized the most. Since the thesis was difficult to understand, so many other aspects of my introduction were hurt. From the criticism I was given, I have been able to re-work my thesis (into two sentences), which I hope improves the quality of my introduction.

Post #7

The concept of originality in writing has not been something I’ve really had to worry about before. The majority of the papers I wrote in undergrad, usually focus papers or assigned topics engaging with the text, required very little research and little to no originality. The aspects or themes I found to comment upon were probably the same ones everyone noticed and then made the subjects of their papers. Even the papers written in graduate school have parameters attached to them in some capacity that help direct what my topic needs to be. Even though my senior capstone, which was basically a thesis on the undergraduate level, was an “original work,” everyone in the class received quite a bit of guidance and help from the professor in formulating their topics. I have arrived at a preliminary scope for my thesis based on the articles and essays I’ve read, but only a more intense review of the literature will tell me if this idea has any merit and originality or if it will all have to be scrapped. Returning to the drawing board is not a pleasant possibility, but it is a reality.

Salinger studies has placed a large emphasis on the concept of Eastern religious thought in both Salinger’s personal life and in his writing. I am not familiar enough with Buddhism and Hinduism to make a complete judgment, but from what I have read, there are many articles on this topic which seem to present a (mostly) complete picture of Eastern philosophy in a number of Salinger’s writings from The Catcher in the Rye to relevant short stories in Nine Stories. I will need to become more familiar with these philosophies in order to intelligently comment on them if they happen to come up in my paper, but other aspects of Salinger’s works, especially the short stories in Nine Stories, have sometimes been neglected in favor of the predominant trend of finding religious symbols in “Teddy.” Many of Salinger’s stories focus on children, and while the role of children has been commented on by a few critics, “The Laughing Man” stands out as the one story that contains a number of children but has very little criticism written about it.

Post #6

We have read many important and informative articles in this class throughout the semester. We have learned about the history of English departments, how to write for an audience, and how to interact with your mentor and thesis committee members. However, the article that has remained on my mind constantly since we read and discussed it is “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go” by Thomas H. Benton. I came into graduate school with many of the unrealistic notions that he mentions. The state of the English faculty in universities is different than it was when my professors and mentors at my undergraduate institution were hired. I went to a small, liberal arts college in South Carolina, and almost a third of the professors in the English department only had MAs and were not looked down upon as inferior teachers; I saw no difference between their ability to teach me about novels, poems, and literary theory and the ability of professors with PhDs to teach me the same concepts. However, as more and more students are pursuing MAs and then PhDs, institutions are naturally going to hire the most qualified applicants. With such large numbers of applications, those who have a PhD at the end of their name and have large numbers of articles published listed on their CVs are going to be hired by institutions looking to prove themselves as distinguished institutes of higher learning.

This article and the advice it contains may seem overly bleak, but Benton does provide a wake-up call that has led me to two different realizations. The first is that I must look at other career options when I leave graduate school with my thesis completed. The competition for jobs is cutthroat, and thus students are fighting to enter into PhD programs, programs that are going to accept those with greater qualifications than I can feasibly attain within the next year or so. The second realization is that this thesis is very important (more important than I thought) if I decide to take the risk and apply to a PhD program. My thesis must be as polished, relevant, and interesting as possible if I stand any chance of being accepted by a PhD program in order to pursue my dream career.

Post #5

The act of taking this class has alerted me to many of the insecurities I have related to my writing (some of them I was vaguely aware of and other I have been successfully repressing). “Why Graduate Students Can’t Write” presented a fairly comprehensive view of many of the stumbling blocks and difficulties that students working on their dissertations and theses encounter; the ability to structure writing times in such an unstructured time frame was an issue that I was aware of but had never really applied to my own list of thesis concerns. My main concern, building on last week, relates to time management. I find that much of my motivation for completing a task stems from the fact that I am given a deadline, and if I do not complete my work by then, I will be penalized. Never one for extensions, a specific due date is something that I need to motivate me toward completion. I know that writing my thesis is a whole different undertaking than just a seminar paper that needs to be 15 pages. When I have a due date for one of these papers looming at the end of the month, I know that I just have to work hard and complete that work, and then I will be done. It will not be the same type of process for the thesis. Such a long and unstructured time frame will not give me that final date that I can consider a “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Recognizing my need for deadlines helps me realize what type of professor I need to pursue in my quest for an adviser. I need to set up my own schedule, whether it be one outlined in one of the many “How to Write Your Thesis” books or one I devise on my own, but I also should attempt to find an adviser who will hold me accountable to these deadlines and who will place the same importance on adhering, as strictly as possible, to an established schedule.

Post #4

Finding time to sit down and write seems to be a common problem in the world of writing. So many different types of distractions exist. If you find that you write better at home (as opposed to say a coffee house or the library), there is the constant siren call of the television, games on the computer, or if you happen to live with a roommate or spouse, the temptation to talk or hang out. Then again, if you happen to work more efficiently in a public area, different distractions emerge...people watching, delicious coffee beverages, and acquaintances looking to talk for a couple of hours. I personally find that I work best in my apartment. In order to increase the amount much work I am able to complete, I make sure that I take care of everything before I sit down to work. I set a goal start time for myself (usually on the hour but sometimes on the half hour), and when that time approaches, I sit down and work, usually at the bar area of my kitchen. I am able to work for relatively long stretches of time, but after about two and a half hours, I begin to lose momentum and need to take at least an hour break before any other work of quality will be produced.

A major concern in time management I recognize as pertinent for me involves my job. Currently, I am forced to block of certain amounts of time on my schedule due to class and travel time. However, when I am working on my thesis, my schedule will appear to be wide open, and I will want to schedule students during any open time in order to inflate my bank account. I work best during mid-morning/early afternoon, which is convenient as I can only work with students when they are out of school at 3:00 or so, but I will need to get into the mentality that on some days, thesis writing writing and research will need to take precedence over the SAT and the ACT.

Post #3

Much of our assigned reading this week from The Craft of Research contained aspects of writing that have been covered many times in practice and instruction, but it is always important to remind ourselves that we need to be clear and use support in our written and verbal claims. I had never heard the title “warrants” in any of my writing instruction up until this point, but I recognize the general concept and recognize that it is an area of writing I must treat carefully.

For many writers, the problem with warrants occurs when they leave them out of their writing because they assume that the connections between the points being made are clear to the readers. I feel like I fall on the opposite end of the spectrum from this total assumption of understanding; I tend to over-qualify claims and definitions in my argument. When I read a journal article, I appreciate the author providing definitions for terms or context for an author’s work, especially if I am not as familiar with the time period, author, or writing style as I probably should be to read the article. When I write with my target audience (right now, teachers and in the future, other scholars in my general field) in mind, I attempt to only provide information or warrants that would not be obvious to me if I were reading an article on the same topic written by another author. I am very thankful when I read these types of explanations in the numerous journal articles I read in graduate school and in the articles I’ve read over the years. The problem for me occurs when I try to consider my article outside of the context of Salinger, American literature, or 20th century literature. Leaving out warrants and definitions can be detrimental to all readers, but I feel like including too much information (context, definitions, warrants) can decrease my authority because my essay appears too simplistic or patronizing. Once again, as I feel like I am constantly saying to myself in this blog and in everyday academic life, I must find a way to find the balance that many academic scholars have found through time, practice, and feedback.

Post #2

The “so what” question seems to be the question that will constantly plague me in my literary career. This question is the first I must answer in my quest to formulate a topic for my thesis, write the thesis, and defend the argument I make in the thesis. Then, (if I can find myself in the lucky position) when I am working in an institution, I will also have to defend the fact that English is an important discipline worthy of a position in the faculty body and of funding from the university. The number of people who asked what I was going to do with a BA in English increased exponentially as I approached graduation, and my enrollment in graduate school has not lessened the questions I receive about the future and what I’m going to do with my degree..."teach?” The “hard” sciences typically receive much more respect and monetary support from the university or college than the disciplines that are unable to produce a concrete product or service.

I double majored in Psychology during my undergraduate education, and I saw how even that discipline is viewed with a milder form of the same skepticism and questioning that English, Sociology, Philosophy, and History scholars encounter. I am extremely interested in the human condition and the way people think (as most literary scholars are), and I think that my interest in Psychology was an extension of the interest in the inner workings of characters in novels. I am not sure if or how I will employ this secondary specialty in my work; Freud and Jung, major figures in the psychoanalytic world, are looked upon as charming relics in the modern Psychology world, studied as interesting historical theories that have little relevance in the modern therapeutic environment. However, Salinger, the proposed author of my thesis work, creates complex layered characters who can be viewed from these specific vantage points. However, what would be the importance of identifying the “shadow” or diagnosing a character with an oral fixation if the theories are not relevant to how the world functions today?

Post #1

Taking this Pro-Seminar class and reading the assigned chapters has really caused me to question what kind of writer I am and what the process is that I employ when trying to create an essay of quality. I’ve heard many complaints from classmates in both undergrad and grad school that they know what to write, but they are simply unable to get their thoughts down on the page or are unable to feel the push to get something done. However, for me, getting words down on the page is not the aspect of writing that perplexes me. The most difficult facet of writing for me is my inability to decide exactly what I want to write about. I experience this difficulty in concretely expressing myself or making decisions in many different aspects of my life...simply composing an e-mail or deciding to where to eat can take longer than is socially acceptable. (Deciding the topic for this blog post took a slightly ridiculous amount of time as well.) However, of most relevance for this blog and for where I hope to go in my life and in my career is the nervous feeling in my gut that I encounter every time I see the assignment of an “original research essay.”

I don’t think that my difficulty in getting started on my writing comes from a lack of interest in my topic. Certainly, this can be the case when dealing with writing assignments for classes that I am taking to fulfill requirements, but I experience this even when I am in a class in my area, writing on my favorite book in the world. Eventually, I have a “Eureka!” moment and a topic comes to me, usually a little later in the semester than I would prefer, but something I would really like to improve upon would be arriving at these moments in a less excruciating and procrastinatory manner. I know that I want to write my thesis on J.D. Salinger’s collection of short stories, Nine Stories, and judging by my track record with coming up with topics so far, I should begin this process sooner rather than later.