Final Blog

What has improved about my writing is now I know how to better form an academic title. I also have improved on my grammar in many ways. I have learned useful words that will come in handy in future academic papers. Not only that, but I feel like my format structure of my papers has improved; I've learned to think outside of the box, use not only the standard five paragraphs, but more than that.

The strategy I learned that I have found the most helpful would be using flash cards for my sources. By writing down the important paragraphs and sentences I want to use from mysources, I've become better organized. This way it is much easier to structure my paragraphs and use quotes from my sources. This way I don't have to scramble through my sources trying to find a relevant quote.

The easiest paper for me to complete would probably have been the second paper, which was over a short story of our choice. I chose "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Anderson because I was really interested in that story and it was a type of genre that I like. I think it was the easiest for me to complete because I chose to do the paper over a short story I really liked and one that I had a lot of interest in. In that way, it was easier for me to reread the short story so much and it was easy for me to become interested in the paper. I think that's what made it easiest for me.

Of all the lessons, I think how to distinguish between using two different words, such as well and good, was the best lesson. Those two words in particular are hard to distinguish between, because nobody really ever taught me how to use them, or when it was correct to use either one.

I do feel more prepared to write a college-level paper. With my English Comp class that I took before coming to college, I felt like it didn't prepare me at all. I took it at a Community College and felt like the professors there did nothing to help me. I feel like this class did help me in some ways to write a better paper.

Poetry for April 1st

Each of the poems has something in common with each other. They each take on the view of what they think about the opposite sex. Women have views about men, and men have views about women. In Beyonce's song, she sings about the way women view men, which are views most women would agree on. In John Michael Montgomery's song, he also talks about the view of women, about how they steal men's hearts and get them to do their bidding. In "Sexism" it's about the views of men and women as well, from the view of a man. He thinks women sit around, waiting for their husbands and are happy when they're home. For men, they're happy when their away from their wives. With the children's rhyme, it's similar. It works on the stereotypes of boys and girls.

Each poem has the view of one sex and speaks about what they see. Each gender will have a biased opinion on the subject, because men will never know how women think or feel, and women will never know how men think and feel.

The Flea

To me this poem is about two people having sex and the fact that the "flea" is a mix of their "two bloods mingle," which makes me think that this flea is a child? Born from their sex and created from their blood. It also talks about "maidenhead" so somebody lost their virginity. "The flea is you and I" which adds to the fact that the "flea" is part of the person and the narrator. Also, it makes me think of abortion or killing of something? "Three sins in killing three." It makes me think that the woman would kill herself, which would kill the baby as well, because the baby was conceived out of wedlock. This suicide might cause the narrator to become suicidal as well.

Experience in Poetry

I never read poetry outside of school, I'm not really interested in it. I have read a lot of it in school though. I don't really have a favorite poet, Shakespeare isn't bad, of course, and Robert Frost isn't too bad either. Otherwise, other than songs and Dr. Seuss, I don't really read or listen to poetry? Though I do believe it can be interesting and I have been to a poetry reading before, and it was actually really entertaining.

To me, poetry comes in all varieties. It can be really short or pretty long. It can be free verse or rhyming. It needs to have some reason though behind the words, a reason for writing the poem. A message must be able to be understood by the poem. The poem can be simple or be confusing. A lot can be a poem. It's really hard to define what a poem is.

End of Faustus

Technically and literally, the end of Faustus.

My paper I think will be over the fact that Faustus is so proud of himself and his knowledge that he believes he can control the Devil and black magic. In all actuality, his knowledge and pride is defeated and he begins to be controlled by the Devil. By the end of the book he is so controlled by the Devil that he is tricked into giving up his soul by the Devil and his demons.

Scene VI - X

Why does Faustus want to raise the dead so badly? He obviously doesn't know how to yet, otherwise he wouldn't have needed to use the demons as Alexander the Great and so on. Does he want to unleash a deadly army on the world? Does he want to bring God back to life or Jesus? Does he want to become the new God? What ishis reasoning for even wanting to be a part of black magic? He knows all about God and now wants to know all about the Devil? Was his whole life spent working for this moment? He wanted to be a teacher, a healer, he wanted to know earthly rules, and wanted to know all about God and the Devil, so he could become more powerful than they are?? But he is failing because the Devil definitely  has Faustus twisted around his finger...

Scene V

I feel like Faustus is already out of control. I don't understand why he keeps talking about himself in the third person either? That really shows his character and how he believes himself to be more knowledgeable and more powerful than any other being, maybe even than God. I feel like he might have been possessed at that point by evil spirits because he was acting so strangely in the way he was speaking. I feel like the demon who caters to him was trying to tell him that it is miserable being where he is and he tried to talk him out of it, yet he still had to do his job and help sway Faustus to sell his soul to the devil. The idea that his body tried to stop him was interesting because I didn't know if maybe God was telling him something or his demon slave did it for him? I feel like now that he's sold his soul to the devil, there will be something that happens because when signing your soul to the devil you have to be specific about what you ask for in return. The devil is sneaky and will use loop holes to gain your soul before you want him to and in a way that gives you nothing in return. I feel like this might happen to Faustus.