Friday, April 19, 2013

Once Upon a Research Paper

My research paper started with a small idea and a concept that I was struggling to grasp.  I initially was confused at Iago and his amoral nature as well as the way in which he so easily altered himself and adopted new selves to fulfill his revenge upon Othello.  As I was talking to Steve in class, I realized that I needed something hard as evidence to back this cloudy theory that my paper was standing on.  The true makings of my paper were discovered in the tweethis exercise which helped me pull my ideas together and narrow everything down to one succinct topic and purpose.  The major social proofing I did was in class, with my roommates, or with my High School English teacher and the ideas I fostered there really helped my paper get off the ground in terms of sustenance.  My purpose was truly realized in class talking with Amelia.  The way she discussed her topic, I was able to infer the passion she had for her paper, or at least a great sense of purpose for what she was discussing.  I knew that for my paper to truly be something special, I was going to have to find that same purpose.

Going back through the primary texts, I found that Iago was sensible in his change in "disguise" and even more than that, in reflection of Carl Jung's personality theory, Iago was a deep character, perhaps deeper than any of the other stock characters in the story.  He is a maze of complexity inside a the guise of a purposeless and malicious revenge seeker.  However poor my mini rough draft was, I was able to move past it for the most part after meeting with Dr. Burton and published my final draft just in time, both for the class and for the submissions that we all made.

1 comment:

  1. Lauren, I like that what you gained from talking to Amelia was the enthusiasm to continue working because that's definitely the main benefit I saw from having such an emphasis on social learning.

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