Project 1

Reflection

I don’t think I have ever been so drained from writing a paper before in my life.  I started out passionate about the song “Kansas City” and I ran with it.  I ran with it until I had a complete paper, however I missed the point.  Realizing this, I began a large re-write. I drastically switched focuses, changed sources, and rewrote every paragraph until my new idea was logical and defended.  I had never done revisions this robust before so it was a new and slightly scarring experience.  It is so changed in fact, that the final version contains no mention of “Kansas City” at all.

As for the writing processes that I found useful, the starting point and motive discussion helped guide my thesis and I tried to constantly incorporate a balance between critical debate and archival evidence.  Producing this balance was critical to this paper because each aspect by itself is unremarkable, it is through the discourse between them where the paper derives importance.  I think I will keep that in mind as I move to project 2, I will also try and start with an idea that may not need so much work to defend to make my life easier.