Having written my first couple of weekly papers in this class, I feel as though I have had enough experience to tell exactly what I need to work on moving forward in this class. I think, as of this moment right now, I need to realize that this is not a literature class, but a writing class. To use Professor Thum’s own words, I need to focus less on “what I write about,” and more on “how I write it.” So much of my time and energy in preparing those papers has been focused on what I really want to say, and I definitely do not spend enough time structuring my argument. Moving forward, I will try to condense exactly what I say into a single short sentence before I begin writing. This way, I will know my exact thesis to begin with, and all my evidence will be undeniably supporting this specific statement. Basically, my early attempts at weekly papers were the writing equivalent of a “behind-the-back” pass in basketball that gets intercepted. I was so focused on writing ostentatiously to try to display some of my deeper thinking about the book (like the biblical allusion to Mt. Sinai) that I ended up confusing myself when it came to my thesis, when a much more fundamental topic (like, say, an examination of Neil’s insecurities) would have allowed me more time to structure my argument, rather than try to discover it along the way. Ultimately, I am really excited to get another shot at one of these weekly writing papers, diagramming it out to achieve full clarity in my writing. This will certainly make me an altogether better writer as I advance in my Dartmouth career and beyond.