Writing a research paper on something you have spent 360 hours on and yet you still don't understand what is happening can leave you in a rut. You think you are getting somewhere and that you actually understand what is going on only to find you really have gone nowhere in your ventures.
Everyone hounds on you to get it done, but procrastination feels so much better. After all, if you can't see it, it doesn't exist anyway. Besides, if you don't have data, only half of it can be written......right?
Wrong. You just get to pull a Sheldon Cooper once you obtain data. Aren't research papers fun? Attempting to write one without data is like only knowing half the story at one time and its in big jumbled mess and all you can do is hang on for the ride.
Its a lot like trying to read Beloved by Toni Morrison. You think you finally understood a piece of plot only to find that you were wrong or something else was at play. Without data, a research paper is missing an important, fundamental element that causes everything else involved to either make sense or create more questions. I get the feeling that Beloved is the same way.
Beloved is filled with confusing structures and phrases that force the reader to think and infer about what is happening. My research paper that has no data is along the same lines at the moment. However, while Beloved has a purpose and can actually allow readers to draw some sort of conclusion, my paper mainly only asks the same questions I'm trying to answer. Then again, I haven't finished reading the book yet. For all I know, Beloved could be the same way.
I completely agree with you! I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to write any type of paper and truly not understanding what it is about. I am also the type of person that thinks procrastination feels better. Why do it now when you have time to do it later. In Beloved I also have found it tricky to know what is going on in the plot. I have read so many pages thinking it said one thing, then coming to class and hearing that I read it completely wrong. But I guess that is good literature. Being able to write something so complex that you really have to study it to get the intended meaning. And since we are in AP English with such complex text the idea of knowing what you are reading the first time around can be a real challenge. This concept I feel can also be linked to anything we do. There is always a point in life that we cram for something and still don't know exactly what we are talking about.
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Daniel Wahl
1/19/2015 09:43:29 am
It can oftentimes be overwhelming when there are so many details in a piece of literature like in Beloved, especially when each detail connects to and alters the meaning of others. Books like these are special, though, because they provide a landscape of thoughts and ideas that are free to any kind of interpretation by the reader. These books are why the human brain is so magnificent and why its vast discoveries are such enigmas to mankind. To appreciate a piece of literature doesn't hold one to understanding its full meaning, but to cherishing and reflecting upon a few of its main ideas. This is how I plan to go about enjoying this book as I read it for the first time.
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Jimmy Chen
1/19/2015 11:52:39 am
Funny that you brought up procrastination, after I finish commenting on your blog post, I still have piles of homework to do that I could have been doing over the 3 day weekend but chose not to do. I also completely understand what you mean when you say that you can never really understand where Beloved is going until you get all the plot points. For one thing, I'm still trying to piece together what Toni Morrison wants Beloved (the character) to represent in the novel. Right now, it seems like beloved will be the catalyst that reopens painful memories for Sethe and Paul D. but it also feels like Beloved will be the one to pull Denver into the horrible memories that her mother has to live with every day.
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