Looking back...

After reading through my posts a few times with the mentality that I was reading someone else’s work I was more satisfied with the last post than the first. This seems obvious because much like everything we do in life; the more we do of it the better we get at it. But the change in writing is apparent within the three posts and the main reason for that is because of “thesis.”
In my first post about the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream I was far too general. There was no concrete idea behind what I was writing about. In all optimism I might have touched down on something a little bit, but nothing with direction. The first post was mostly a general summary of what I read, raising only a small question about the fairies in the play.
In my most recent post there is more of a thesis generated. In the opening statement of the blog I point out the change in Othello’s personality then the complexity behind the character of Iago and then dive deeper into both topics. Even though this was my best post I don’t consider it to be dynamite refrigerator hanging worthy writing.
I think to make these blog posts a little stronger I should pull a little more from the text. Not necessarily quotes but more cognitive questions, more material to inquire and give more thought too. When I read Shakespeare’s work and then put the book down I have all of these different ideas and questions and that isn’t completely reflected in my blog posts. I should probably get into the habit of writing the blog posts right after the reading, or jot down notes while reading. I think a good strong post depends on the support it gets from the text.
Another interesting observation I noticed in the posts was I spent most of my writing talking about the human emotion in Shakespeare’s work. I talked about the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick, Othello’s “change” and the difficulty in Iago’s personality. Human emotion seems to be a dominant reoccurring theme in Shakespeare’s work but I think how well he can portray that emotion is what makes it so great and also a reason why it keeps showing up in my blog posts.
As far as revisiting goes my second post has a lot to do with what I’m aiming to write my final paper on. In that post I focus on the change in Othello from hero to villain and how difficult it is to try and discover Iago’s real motivation and intentions. For my paper I’m comparing Shakespearian work to Batman to look carefully at the relationship between Othello and The Dark Knight and other work from Batman and Shakespeare. Othello has been my favorite read so far in class, the story was awesome. While reading in class it held my attention and was the play that made me generate the most questions and interest so I’m not too surprised that I’m using Othello for the paper. I did use some important quotes within the post that I’ll probably reuse in the paper. The second post seems to be foreshadowing for the final paper.
The blogging assignment for class comes in really handy. Having to blog about the reading really makes me pay attention and think about the work, instead of just reading and skimming the work for class. I was skeptical at first but it has become a very effective tool in generating classroom discussion and ideas as well as having the chance to see what the other students in the class have to say about Shakespeare. Also being given the chance to reflect on all of the blog-writing I have done so far gives me the opportunity to see where I can improve, which as I stated before was focusing more on the text and the inquires I develop from it. Over all the blogging assignments prove to been a beneficial asset to the class.