I'm back, and checking out the syllabus for my English class

To me, a community college student, this seems a bit excessive.
Student Union at Oklahoma State University - Stillwater, the largest student center in the world. Photo taken April 22, 2006. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've just been on Blackboard, looking at the syllabus for English 102.  The first class is this coming Friday, and I wanted to get an idea of how much work this is going to be.  It looks like a lot-- six projects, including a research paper.  At least I've got the course schedule now, so I can do some planning, which I hope will help.  I'm really tired of falling behind and having to work on stuff for school in marathon sessions (bingeing on homework?  Not fun).  
The first project is a blog, so this one should work.  I hope it'll meet all the requirements.  I'll check back Monday to see if anything else is on the Blackboard for this class. 

Related articles (actually, just a few things I thought were interesting)

• Profs send letter to Pres. Obama requesting 'full neuropsychiatric evaluation' of Donald Trump (thecollegefix.com)
• Moon Knight (bjornpaige.wordpress.com)
• Texas High Schoolers Just Assassinated 'Donald Trump' in a School Skit, and Parents Are Enraged (ijr.com)
• Even Liberal Bubbles Don't Feel As Safe As The Used To (queerty.com)
• Vinyl records retain their magic (triblive.com)
• Malia Obama is going to Harvard next fall - here's where America's other 'first kids' went to college (businessinsider.com)
• When Worlds Collide: Seattle Colleges Host Homeless Camps (newsy.com)
• This is How Much Weight College Students Gain Over 4 Years (time.com)
• Andrew Cuomo makes a big call for free tuition at New York public colleges, with Bernie Sanders by his side (businessinsider.com)
• Graduate students say Harvard hindered vote to unionize (sfgate.com)

Prewriting the Critical Analysis Paper

Rue pointing at the trackerjacker
nest.

I'm supposed to write about the prewriting for my paper on the scene from The Hunger Games.  As I understand it, I need to prewrite two sections:  the explanation of my critical approach (myth criticism), and the analysis of the scene (the one where Rue dies).  I started with the explanation, because I thought that would be the tougher part, and I was right.  When I got to the analysis, I had to keep going back to the explanation because I remembered something I left out.

When I prewrite, I usually just brainstorm, but sometimes I'll start writing a paragraph or two because I have an idea how to handle it, which means that it looks pretty strange.  This is what works for me, though, so I'm going to keep on doing it that way.  The things I came up with for the explanation were:  Road of Trials, death of the mentor (yes, Rue is a mentor, if only for a short time, and this is one of the things that came to me when I was working on the analysis), hero archetypes, the goddess Artemis, Atalanta, virgins in Greek mythology, tricks in mythology, monsters (I think Cato is a monster in a way, kind of like the Minotaur).  There was more that I got rid of.

With the analysis, I had the following, plus a couple paragraphs in the middle that I'm leaving out here:  explain plan to destroy food, Katniss as hero, Katniss as Artemis/Atalanta, Rue as mentor (signals with mockingjays), shooting the apples (Atalanta?), attack/instant retribution, Rue dies - last words, song, flowers, salute (I really want to mention the explanation of this from the book, but I guess I can't), grieving.

I'll bet a lot of that doesn't make sense to anybody but me, but that's what I've got for now, and I may have a thesis already.  On to the draft.

Related articles

• Prewriting: A Neglected Stage of the Writing Process (revolutionarypaideia.com)
• Having difficulty writing a Response to Literature: Book Review? Practice One Step at a Time (sfxschoolnews.typepad.com)
• 30 Days of PreWriting... Still Coming (maidenfine.wordpress.com)
• Amazing Modern Day Trojan Horse Made From Over 18,000 Salvaged Computer Keys (inhabitat.com)

Woe is me!

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I'm way behind.  Worse yet, Lisa is ahead -- I don't know how she does it, but I do know one thing that helped her.  Unlike most of us in the class, she didn't screw up on the first essay.  I have to have a fresh revision for Monday.  It's almost done.  I still haven't finished my library research strategy exercise (that was supposed to be posted to the course discussion on Wednesday (2/24), but I did go over to the library and pick up my two interlibrary loans, before they got sent back and I got a $5 fine (I'll talk about those books next time, when I've looked them over).

I can't get over how much time this takes-- it's way more work than the first first-year comp class, even though there isn't as much actual writing.  I got a few good comments from the peer review on my research proposal, but I think I'm going to try to make it to Dr. Toffee's office hours before Thursday (it's due on Friday).

I've checked, and all of my journal entries so far are a lot more than the minimum 100-word requirement.  That should count for something, shouldn't it?  Not according to the assignment sheet.