Month: November 2020

WHEN THINKING ABOUT READING LITERATURE ABOUT MADNESS…

Before this course, I was pretty unfamiliar with how madness is usually represented in literature and how prevalent it actually is in pieces of literature that I’ve read. For example, I never viewed “The Tell-Tale Heart” in the specific lens of analyzing mental illness. When I read this short story in 7th grade ELA class, that was not the emphasis of discussion. I can see now how important and relevant this conversation is, though. Narrative and creative expression in literature offer a whole new lens into the world of mental illness that might not be able to be seen through a different perspective. In other words, narrative and creative expression are more intimate and raw, allowing readers to literally place themselves in the minds of these people. Clinical observation, psychological study, and medical diagnosis just cannot achieve that same outcome. 

When thinking about COPYRIGHT…

Since I am an English major and have been taking English courses at UNE for 3 years now, I am mostly familiar with the concept of copyright. I am usually fairly informed about what should be cited and how it should be cited, but I did learn a little about this process in my ADE project. I learned about “image credits” and how difficult it is to find good images available for use in the public domain! I have not been asked to credit the source of my images since English 110 when I started with ePortfolio. Professor Tuttle gave me a refresher on how to do this, and I learned a lot through this process. Everything in my ADE that was taken from other sources is cited, so my project is public and available to all.

When thinking about EPORTFOLIO AND WORDPRESS…

I think this project just makes the most sense to be done through ePortfolio and WordPress. I believe that if we had typed the pieces of this project and handed in a stapled copy of them, it would not achieve the same effect. The ability to navigate through this program and showcase our learning creates a more professional and advanced effect that I do not think could be achieved from a hard copy version. Similarly, as we advance further into the digital age, it is important to use and learn these skills (it’s another entire aspect of curriculum to learn)! Using ePortfolio for this project allowed for better organization and easier navigation as every single item was laid out specifically for the reader, and the site was created to guide them in the intended direction; I do not think this guidance could be accomplished through paper. I do feel slightly more confident in my WordPress skills, but I was confident before this project even came about. I consider myself an experienced user, but I was able to enhance my skills through the conversations with Professor Gennaco and other peers. I was also able to create an entirely new ePortfolio site for this project and start from scratch, which I can see myself utilizing in other classes or even in my future teaching career (possibly as a class website).

When thinking about my ade reflection…

When briefly looking over what will be included in my reflection for my Annotated Digital Edition, I have some things to say. When I decided I wanted to focus on the setting of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” I determined the specific parts of the text I wanted to comment on and allowed those to frame my digital edition. For my thesis, I will need to make sure that my annotations and the claims within them align well with what I discuss in this argumentative sentence. I need to make sure that as I continue to write my annotations, I take time to revert back to the ideas found within my thesis and tie it all together. My thesis, and the critical introduction that the thesis lives in, will both address my readers needs. Since I have already started to draft it, I have included important contextual information from a secondary source that reveals something about the time period in which it was written. I also begin by discussing the plot. Both of these elements should help to meet my readers needs. I think the biggest thing I am struggling with while drafting my critical introduction is anticipating those questions of the reader. But, I am confident that once I meet with my peer group and/or Professor Tuttle to review my drafts, I will be able to hear what the reader needs more of. I also feel that my critical introduction may be lacking biographical information on the author, but I don’t want this to take away from the subject of “The Yellow Wallpaper” itself (I know some of Gilman’s bio directly relates to this story, but I don’t know how to talk about it without sounding like I’m going off on a tangent). Overall, I do feel like I will have a lot to reflect on by the end of this process.