My final paper: A reflection

Before I go off on explaining my process for finally getting my act together and completing this final essay, I do just want to make it clear that I really did learn a lot in this class.  I greatly enjoyed the class discussions, and I feel that I gained a better understanding of how to read and analyze poetry.  I think I understand a little better just why so many Romantic poets absolutely loved Milton.

This is the story of how I finally completed my final paper the hard way.  As many in the class may have noticed, I missed a number of classes, which certainly didn’t help my ability to keep up with the reading and writing load.  I fell way behind in completing this essay, which is why it was turned in late.  Truth be told, I felt kind of swamped by the material—I mean, how do you come up with anything remotely original to say about an author who people have been debating for nearly 400 years?  As such, I felt like I was at a bit of a loss to come up with anything.  I was, however, drawn to the idea of looking first at Milton and Oliver Cromwell, specifically at the idea of Cromwell as inspiration for Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost.  I even wrote a short essay on that subject, which you might now recognize as forming a portion of my final essay.

Final Paper: Ambitions and Passivity: An Examination of Milton and his Works in the Light of Revolution

Here is my final paper.

Adventures in Miltonland

We made it! Hooray!


To say I'm completely satisfied with my final paper would be a stretch, but I tend to never be satisfied with my final product when writing a research paper. Always one more thing to add or change to make it better. However, one of the things that strengthened my paper and guiding it to where it ended up was the specific research approaches we took in this class. The process to write this paper was very refreshing, and I even used similar strategies to write a Poe-Hitchcock comparison paper for another class in which I was struggling to find sources for. It was quite the journey, and a good one too.

The End

          Wow, has this paper just stressed me to the point of insanity. I don't know what it was about this particular assignment, but I think I kind of wanted to show everyone (okay, mostly just myself) that I don't have to like an author to write a good paper.
          Which brings me to my next point: no, I did not grow to love Milton that much. Despite the fact that I named my fish after him, he just didn't stick out to me. I'm still glad that I chose this major authors course over the others because at least I've learned something about the works and the life of an author other than Shakespeare...who I am sick of.
          I'm not used to being very social about my school work, especially papers or essays, but the first step in socially optimized research is to TELL PEOPLE. I don't necessarily procrastinate enough to be considered really irresponsible, but I do like going at my own pace. The last unit of this class, the research unit, has been the most difficult for me. To talk to everyone about the progress of my paper (or lack thereof) is just way out of the ordinary for me, but near the end, I had several people (like my parents, an old high school teacher) reading drafts of my paper to give me feedback. but I can already see how I'm going to benefit from it.

Man of Sin: Complete at Last!

Well, it's done! I'm finished with my paper, and I've submitted it to a couple of different venues. Here's the link for anyone interested in reading the full version.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oHVteZi_KNdkVsd0tndng1SUk/edit?usp=sharing

Milton's Paradox: Justifying Classical Allusions

Whoa, I missed the memo we were posting these on here;] So here's mine!