Post at least two questions or concerns you have as you draft your essays. Share with the rest of the classroom how your writing process is going. Do you feel stuck? Do you need help with anything? How are you feeling about the essay?
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My main concern is that my thesis won’t be argumentative enough. How do I make a thesis that is not untrue but at the same time you can argue it by saying the opposite and is questionable who is right? It’s the hardest part.
Second question, for the sources, are we supposed to use only the sources from our A and B sources, not something outside of it? When it comes to our B source should we use it only in a few sentences when making a comparison or should we write paragraphs about it too?
Regarding your second question from what I know we are only supposed to use the two sources. Depending on what you are arguing and trying to explain will determine how much of your second source will be incorporated. Since it is proving what you are trying to claim, I think it should be used a great amount.
Two concerns for my essay are my thesis and analysis.
My first question is how do I narrow down my ideas and make my thesis specific?
The second question is when analyzing the quotes, other than trying to prove my thesis. What do I need to analyze specifically?
My writing process needs a lot of improvement, I am stuck on being able to analyze enough and making my thesis specific.
To answer your first question I would say to choose the main ideas to focus on in your essay and use the two main ideas to have a narrowed thesis.
The main concern for my essay is the length. I am confident I can pick out sources, have a strong thesis and supporting argument. However, the amount may not be enough as I have not written an essay of this length before.
Although I am confident I am able to pick out sources, the specifics of each source and how they ultimately tie back to the thesis and my argument may be a time-consuming challenge as well.
Overall, I am confident I can write this paper but I was a little frightened by the length but I am sure I’ll likely be fine.
I have a similar concern. I think the best way to tackle this down is to have an outline of your essay and you can use it to built up the essay. Also to break the prompt of the essay into different sections.
I feel the same way about the length, I am pretty intimidated because I am not used to writing this much. I think going into extensive detail about the argument will (hopefully) help lengthen the paper for us.
My main concern is my roadmap for my essay. Also my working thesis.
My first questions is how do I make my roadmap tie into my thesis. How do I analyze these evidence to support my thesis?
My second question is: How do I work on my thesis to make it more specific and support my research questions?
Regarding your second question you can make your thesis specific is by narrowing down your topic. You chose power dynamics but specify what type of power is seen amongst the characters in the Tempest. Then state whether Kants argument is in favor of your claim. Something I learned today was that a claim must be specific, arguable, manageable, and interesting. I hope that helps!
One thing that I’m concerned about is choosing the right evidence for my thesis because I haven’t read the whole book and used different version of the book which will give me a hard time in putting the page numbers.
the second thing would be Mary Wollstonecraft’s essay. After all, she didn’t mention any specific people.
In Regarding the writing of the essay, I am not worried about it as long as I have the right evidence, making sure to review quotes in the analysis by explaining them for example “look outside the box” and how it connects back to my claim.
Hi Mehreen, on the first issue, I would recommend maybe going to the college’s library and getting it out on loan. It only allows you to take it for 3 hours, but if you know all the quotes you need, you could then just look through it for them for their page numbers and then return it. Of course, that would be after you have read the whole book and know which quotes would work best for your argument.
My main concern about this essay is how long it is and how to make sure it stays competent the whole way through and not to repeat myself.
I agree with your concerns, I may struggle with trying not to repeat myself as well. I know it is good to restate the points/argument towards the end, but I sometimes do that too much throughout the body of the paper as well.
honestly, I have the same issue when I start writing, I just can’t stop even though with different ideas I feel like I’m still repeating something.
My main concern about my essay is the length. I have not taken a writing/literature course in a while and I think I will struggle making my paper 8-10 pages.
Another concern of mine is applying the idea of “Enlightenment” effectively to Pride and Prejudice. I have an idea of what I will talk about, but I hopefully make it strong/concise enough.
Regarding the length of the essay, I think if you have the right quotes that connect back to your claim, you can take plenty of space by doing an analysis.
This may be a stretch, but I guess you can connect “Enlightenment” ideas to the way Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy changed overtime. In his essay, Kant speaks about the importance of investigating the world yourself and coming up with your own opinions about the world. As Elizabeth is a women, she could originally only get to know Darcy’s character from the dance she attended, Bingley’s home and the word of others. As she explored with her aunt herself, she got to see Darcy at his own estate, in his own habitat rather than hers which helped her create a more complex opinion on his character.
I am unsure how to prove that Pride and Prejudice is a feminist text because it is fiction. Unlike Wollstonecraft’s essay, Austin will not directly state her opinions about society and I have to assume her stance based on the characteristics of her characters. I want to use Austin’s personal history to prove she was a feminist and quotes of Elizabeth Bennet show casing her feminist actions. I guess I’m stumped as how to use quotes from other characters or the storyline to prove that this novel is a critique of societal norms. For instance, I find Lydia’s character to contradict feminism and stereotype women to be naive and simple minded.
I am also concerned about how to re-word my thesis to include ALL the points I want to bring up in my essay. Obviously our essays are meant to be long and will point out many reasonings for our argument. I want to write about Austin’s use of irony and satire, the principle fact that her essay centers female leads, the history and challenges Austin faced to become a successful female author, connections to Wollstonecraft’s essay, and Elizabeth’s feminist characteristics. How do I address all these points in my thesis/ introduction and still make it sound coherent and flow together? I guess I can start my essay off with the history of Austin, and move forward to specificities within the novel. I always get frustrated adding all my reasons within my thesis because I never know how much detail I should get into and end up with a really wordy thesis that is difficult to understand.
My main concern about my thesis, how can I make it convincing enough to write 8–10 pages? I also need help finding evidence.
I would say if you’re worried about the length of the essay, definitely make sure that your initial research question has multiple aspects to it (that come together to form one ultimate idea). That way, you’re able to create a thesis that is stronger and more complex (not confusing though), as well as connect ideas together and write about more. Additionally, the more examples you have, the more you have to prove your thesis and make it more convincing.
In terms of finding evidence, I would suggest first solidifying what is the exact argument you want to make. Or, you can start researching to actually figure out your argument, especially if you’d like to see where you could take your own paper. Then, maybe consult Google Scholar for some articles or papers others have written that support your argument. You can also use databases from the school library, as well as ones from a public library if you have a card with them. I would suggest Gale Academic Onefile if you haven’t done much database research before, it’s personally what I’m used to using at least. You can just search up terms that relate to your argument and look for results that work for support.
The first concern I have is how exactly I will lay out my essay. I am used to having an expected layout from the professor, whether that’s just simple as intro, background, arguments/analysis/discussion, counterarguments, and a conclusion, or something that’s more in depth. I’m sure once I start getting further into the writing process I will be more sure in the way I will want to put my essay together, but right now it’s still an issue.
From the first concern, I also wonder if we should discuss and/or refute any counterarguments in our essays?
My last question would be are we required to discuss the 3-4 pieces of evidence we included on our prospectus, or are we expected to use more in our essays? When weaving in our outside sources (aside from the two in-class texts), how much focus should we place on them?
I feel like with an essay so long + having to add outside sources we will have more than 3 reasons (like a traditional 5 paragraph essay), that will back our thesis. I am also concerned of how to organize my reasonings with multiple paragraphs and somehow make them all connect and flow together.
I’m concerned I won’t have enough material to talk about for 8 pages. *Assuming I have a strong thesis. This is because I have a hard time elaborating on my ideas. After two sentences, I think I have said enough.
I would like to know how often we could send our drafts to the professor so that I stay on track.
Sending our drafts definitely sounds like a good idea. I feel as though having a peer editing session might be helpful too! That way we can all help one another alongside the professor’s thoughts.
My first question is how to develop a strong thesis because my thesis is not strong enough right now. “How does Jane Austen uses “Pride and Prejudice” demonstrate Kant’s idea of “Enlightenment”? Both Kant’s essay and Austen’s novel wanted readers to question traditional beliefs and societal expectations. In “Pride and Prejudice”, Austen uses characters like Elizabeth Bennet to challenge the gender norms of her era.”
My concern is I have never written a 8 pages essay before, and I won’t be able to find much to write about in my thesis.
My main concern is meeting the 8-10 page and whether or not I can successfully connect Pride and Prejudice to Kant’s Idea.
I completely understand this feeling as well, I am definitely struggling with this aspect of this essay as well!
My first concern regarding the essay assignment is whether or not I will be able to execute the connection between Pride and Prejudice and Wollstonecraft’s ideology in a strong way. Secondly, I am worried about whether my argument can be viable/supported enough with the sources I have found on the Baruch library database alongside the main two texts we used in class.
At times, I do feel stuck with my words and how I want to go about writing my ideas. Overall, I am not feeling too bad about the essay. I just want to be sure that I hit all the points needed properly, and have a concise idea/argument presented.
My main concern is not being able to effectively connect the two texts I selected (Pride and Prejudice and What is Enlightenment) into one essay.
In addition, I’m also concerned about whether I’ll have enough material to write about.
Although my concerns sometimes make me overthink, I believe that by doing the prospectus and having an idea of what I want to write about, I will save me time when I start writing the essay. And if I get stuck, I’ll figure it out while writing.
Note: I apologize for submitting this late. I wasn’t aware that there was a Blog Post 7.
The thing that worries me the most is writing the essay too much like an analysis of the plots and making it difficult to convey the topic in a clear way. My question is how should I divide each part of such a long essay in order to detail it appropriately。