Date 2/3
Inspiration
The inspiration for the topic of my first essay hit me while I was reading The Turn of the Screw, so I immediately started taking notes. I knew I would write about the appearance of the halo effect throughout the story when I started becoming frustrated with the governess for refusing to see the ghosts influence on and within the children simply because they were adorable and well-mannered. I mean, this was obviously a trick that the ghosts were using to deter her from finding out their game. I could see it so clearly, how could she not??
From that point forward, it was easy to find examples of this phenomenon because I was mindful to look out for them. I was extremely lucky that an idea for a topic of my paper came to me early in the process because I have had my fair share of writer’s block, and I know how it can affect a writer. I mean, I can almost feel the stress and frustration just thinking about an approaching deadline and no ideas! I have the idea, now it’s just time for the execution. Wish me luck!
Date 2/9
Blessings of a good peer review
Yesterday, I started off on the grand adventure of writing essay #1. Fortunately for me, I had written a pretty detailed outline. I thanked my previously-motivated self for this blessing because it meant that all I had to do was connect all the bullet points and add some transitions. After doing so, I promptly shared my essay with my peer review members and awaited the oncoming wave of comments.
The biggest things I had to work on were my use of passive voice and my use of “to be” verbs. *Shout out to my group members for bringing this to my attention!* Unfortunately for me, I had no idea what the heck passive voice was, or what “to be” verbs were. A short time later, I had educated myself using the worldwide web about what these lovely literary no-no’s were and how to go about correcting them to the best of my ability so as to not turn in an essay with all sorts of errors. After editing my essay to comply with the requests of my fellow student, I felt good about the first draft of essay #1, I’m ready for a strong start to the semester!
3/10
Retirement
My first essay will be officially retired as of Friday, and I can say that I’m feeling a bit stressed. Essay #1 is kind of my first child, in a way, because it’s my brain child. Because class is cancelled this week, (thank you, corona) I’m having a bit of separation anxiety from my baby. While I know my baby is in the safe keeping of Dr.Pennington, I’m still struggling a little because I’ll probably still have to make some changes and retirement is coming up fast! Needless to say, they grow up SO FAST. Those first few stages of life (or revision) go by in the blink of an eye. I cannot believe that it is already time for my baby to retire 🙁 but I know it will move on to do such great things.
