Read Texts closely and think critically
I exemplified my ability to read texts closely and to think critically most specifically in my midterm essay and my final essay. For my midterm, I received great marks when I was describing another writer’s project in a way s/he would recognize to which I wrote that Daniel Williams’s, the author of the secondary source that I used for my essay, project was “claiming that rumor is “one driving motif” in Tess, Williams wants readers to consider a different motivating factor as an antagonist of the novel, rather than “shame” and “fate,” as Hardy himself would had wanted.” I felt most confident in how I was able to accurately represent Williams’s project and to turn it into an opening that I was able to use to submit my main claim for my paper, which was: “While Williams discusses the negative effects of rumors on both the external and internal lives of the characters within Tess of the d’Urbervilles, he fails to mention which is primarily responsible for the downfall of the main character, Tess. In Hardy’s novel, the internal effects that rumors create are what lead to Tess’s downfall because they force her to adopt and harbor a negative self-image of herself that is ultimately responsible for her demise”.
As a result of receiving an A- on my midterm paper, I had most of the marks of an excellent paper according to the “More Ways for Interpreting Grades” document, but I do think I fell short when it came to expressing what my own interpretation of the novel, which was Hardy’s Tess, in this case. I also could have added in more examples from my primary source, Hardy’s novel, which would have helped me convey my ability to draw connections within and between texts more than what was present in my midterm essay, which can be viewed here.
Conduct research in literary and cultural studies
The two projects that exemplified my ability to conduct research in library and cultural studies were my final essay and the “Discovering the Archive” assignment. In the “Discovering the Archive,” we were tasked with looking through archival documents and finding ones that spoke the most to us, and I found a bunch of letters from school children who were writing to Sidney Baldwin who was the author of Ben of Old Monhegan. The post can be viewed here, and I believe I did a great job of connecting the importance of elementary education with the ability for children to grow up to become critical readers.
As for my final essay, while I haven’t received a grade on it yet, I do believe that I have proven my ability to use bibliographic tools to find source material, and to define and position my own scholarly project within a critical conversation. For my final essay, I looked at Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles once again but this time with a feminist literary theory mindset. I wanted to see if I could define and show that Hardy was being anti-feminist with his treatment of Tess by “expect[ing] her to follow Victorian gender ideals while simultaneously putting her in positions that force her to break out of them” and “placing the fault of what a man did to her on her own shoulders.” The sources I used included Shanta Dutta’s “Bollywood Adaptations of Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and Sarah E. Maier’s “From Wessex to India: Adapting Hardy’s Tess in Trishna” both of which explicitly talk about the scene of “The Chase” and how it is represented in the film medium, yet still shows that Tess was raped instead of seduced by Alec d’Urberville. I think finding and using these sources within my essay exhibit my ability to not only navigate the MLA database, but also to evaluate sources e.g. for relevance, age, and prominence of venue. My final essay can be viewed here.
Communicate effectively in oral and written modes
I displayed my ability to communicate effectively in oral and written modes by peer editing a classmate’s final essay and by creating a version of my final essay that could be read aloud at the UNE Symposium. For the final essay assignment I edited Rob’s final essay, and I think I did a great job of telling him to focus on substantive/global revisions that would help him ground his argument in a main claim/thesis throughout his whole paper. I enjoy editing and try to focus on global revisions rather than local ones, but I also made suggestions for local edits as well. In order to see my comments, I have attached a copy of Rob’s draft with my edits which can be viewed here.
In terms of presenting research findings orally within the conventions of the discipline I successfully presented a mini-version of my final essay to an audience on the day of the UNE Symposium. It is normal for an English presentation of research for the presenter to read their paper out loud in front of an audience, so I had to format my paper in order to fit within the conventions of orally presenting a normally written and read work. I felt confident in my presentation of my research paper entitled “Translating the Treatment of Tess: Determining Thomas Hardy’s Anti-Feminist Intentions for his Main Character in Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and have attached it here for viewing.
