2nd October 2023 – 8th October 2023
This week, I have been in the depths of my essay. I didn’t have the opportunity to actually start work until Monday, which ended up developing into starting the body paragraphs on Tuesday, as there were a lack of resources. Consequently, I ended up needing to cycle through a few ideas, and finally landed on the right topic: the Holocaust as seen by the Soviet Union. Luckily, I already had done some research on this topic with the Last Letters of the Holocaust, which is my primary resource, as we meet Tuvia Grin and his story once more in my essay. I’m still working on my essay and its thesis, however, this was lucky, as we did thesis development on Tuesday in class.
For this essay, I decided to save the thesis until last: write the body first, then go back and see what I’m really saying, then add the intro and conclusion. Annaliese has been really helpful in this process, and I liked some of the tips she gave that I may try next time:
- Use your thesis as a reference point as to what you are writing. Sometimes, your writing may fit, and sometimes, it may not. Keep checking back in.
- Brainstorm! There are a lot of different methods, such as mind mapping, talking it out, and keyword search. I’m thinking that for this particular essay, the keyword search method may be helpful, as all of my writing is out, aside from my actual thesis.
- Keep it clean and concise, and be explicit in what it is stating related to your paper. Have it introduce your claim or question.
Annaliese overall has been really helpful in this process, and I’m planning on meeting with her next week before the essay is due for clarity and conciseness. I may or may not be running over the word count…
My big takeaway for this week was definitely the different brainstorming methods, especially with as broad of a topic as we were given: WWII and Letter Writing. By talking it through, I was able to figure out what I wanted to talk about, and I’m going to try using the keyword search to make my thesis. I’m hoping that after a restful break this weekend over Fall Break, I’ll be ready to have a go at workshopping my essay and making sure the information is exactly how it should be presented and shared. I really like what I’ve come up with, so I’m excited to see how it will turn out!
