Known to many, having an education is a key factor in becoming successful. This accordance among most people may diverge based on the means of the varying methods in obtaining education. The preconceived notion is that people should attend an institutionalized setting (i.e. college) in order to achieve knowledge. However, an increasing number of students disagree and feel that other methods (such as experience of their surroundings) can maximize the potential benefits they can receive. Therefore although education is one of the main ways to achieve knowledge, it is certainly not the only (effective) method. Knowledge is obtained through sensations and reflections, specifically the accompaniment of various thoughts and various sensations with a perception of delight, as stated by John Locke’s paper, An Essay concerning Human Understanding (Book II), which is displayed through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the monster learns through experiences and how to make decisions, such as murdering Victor’s loved ones, based on the perception of delight, with the absence of any preconceived ideas and innate principles.
One thought on “Introduction Exercise 2”
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What’s good:
You take your time with your transition.
You identify a theory and a literary text.
My concern.
My primary concern right now is that I am having a hard time understanding your thesis. You say: “Knowledge is obtained through sensations and reflections, specifically the accompaniment of various thoughts and various sensations with a perception of delight, as stated by John Locke’s paper, An Essay concerning Human Understanding (Book II), which is displayed through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the monster learns through experiences and how to make decisions, such as murdering Victor’s loved ones, based on the perception of delight, with the absence of any preconceived ideas and innate principles.” This sentence is super long! I know you’re trying to get it all in one sentence, but the effect is that all your ideas are getting muddled. This sentence needs to be broken into three simpler (if not four simpler) sentences.
My second is comment is that from what I do surmise of your thesis, you might be in danger of making a “this reflects that” thesis. It’s not bad to say “this reflects that,” but you can’t just say that. There’s no “so what” in this claim. Why does it matter? The so what comes not just in the reflection but in the conversation that happens between the two text. So you would also need to posit a claim about how the way the literary text reflects that theory affects/speaks to our understanding of that theory. (i.e. what does it add? what does it challenge? ) OR you need to posit a claim about how the fact that some part of theory text is reflected in the literary text affects our understanding of what the literary text is doing (i.e. what does that theory text show about the literary text that we wouldn’t have seen without putting them in conversation?).