So I know this whole blog thing was supposed to be done over the entire period of writing this paper but let’s just say it didn’t work out. So let’s recap.
1. Reading
I read the book. I hate the main character, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom; he is ignorant, egotistic, selfish, and disgusting. He is a womanizer who cheats on his wife, has no goals in life, could care less about his family, and is convinced the world revolves around him. Although I hate Rabbit, I really enjoyed the book. It held my attention from start to finish and I plan to continue reading the rest of the series over the summer. I like John Updike’s style. It’s declarative and therefore straight to the point. I like being able to understand the story line, compared to being confused and wondering if I even comprehend the plot correctly.
2. Where to start?
After reading the book I felt so accomplished. This feeling lasted all of three days because next thing I hear is Kreinbring saying “If you haven’t started writing by now…You’re behind!” Well the stress began to kick in at this point and I had no idea which part of the paper to tackle first. I decided that the annotations were my best bet. I choose three annotations that incorporated setting. I felt the Updike’s use of setting gave me a better insight to Rabbit’s complex character. I choose when Rabbit drove south, when Eccles took him golfing, and Rabbit once again running as the novel concludes. The annotations proved to be easier to complete than I thought. I just had to focus on not summarizing.
3. What the heck is a background source?
Finding background sources was awful. It consisted of hours and hours of research on the internet reading biography after biography and hours of watching YouTube interviews of John Updike kind of indirectly answering every question that came his way.
Visit the site: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=John+Updike&aq=f
and you’ll see what I mean
The background sources I picked are
- “John Updike, Golfer” from Golf Digest: http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2009/04/updike
- “Experience” by Emerson: http://www.emersoncentral.com/experience.htm
- Updike’s Obituary from the New York Times
4. Abstracts
The best thing about abstracts is the fact that summarizing is what you’re supposed to do. I tend to summarize when I’m not supposed to so I found this quite exciting. The most difficult part about the criticism was actually finding the articles. I went the library 5 times! Once I finally got a hold of three solid articles, not only reading them, but understanding them was a little challenging.
5. General Introduction
So by this point I was convinced that I had nothing more to say about John Updike or his stupid Rabbit but I came to the conclusion that I had to basically just touch base on everything I had written earlier. Once I realized this the general introduction was not as bad as I thought.
6. Putting it all Together
Well this actually happened today so now I’m blogging correctly
Today I decided to wrap everything up. My works cited/consulted is completed. I read over my entire paper. I’m very glad I did this because I found numerous mistakes. Then I wasted a thing of ink and half a package of blank paper and spent a good twenty minutes three-hole punching everything. But let me just say that once everything was in the binder, an enormous weight was lifted off my shoulders. I cannot wait to set it on Kreinbring’s desk tomorrow!!!
What I Have Learned From this Project:
- I have no idea how to use the library
- Never procrastinate
- I don’t know how to cite sources without easybib.com
- I need a larger vocabulary
- You can go without sleep for a few days until it really starts to hit you
