Sunday, October 11, 2009

Thoughts on the Three Research Papers in our Textbook

In the first research paper titled "The Meaning of the Husband's Fainting in The Yellow Wallpaper" I felt like it was very wordy, repetitive, and unclear. Though the author did a good job of summarizing the story and talking about gender roles in the first paragraph I did not get a clear idea of what their thesis is. What I did like about this paper was at the end the author mentions critics that she does not agree with and does a good job of arguing against them. When writing persuasive paper I always have trouble making the reader think what I am thinking and not discredit my argument.

In the Second research paper titled "The Relative Absence of the Human Touch in The Yellow Wallpaper" I like how the author mentions two of her sources in the first paragraph, I think it gives the paper a strong start. Also in the third paragraph the author uses two quotes from two different sources and does a good job of integrating them into her paper without dropping quotes. I hope to do the same in my paper, I've always had trouble making my paper flow and keeping the quotes from feeling out of place. The one thing I did not like about this paper was that it seemed really long and dragging. The author only talked about one type of human touch, which was massage, towards the end of the paper I got tired of reading about massage. In my paper I want to avoid this and try to keep the reader interested in my topic.

In the last paper, "What the Argument Between Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields Demonstrated about the Media" the first that threw me off was the title. The first paragraph talks about The Yellow Wallpaper and the author doesn't mention Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields until the second paragraph, I think that the title of a paper should tell the reader exactly what they are going to read about. Based on this title you do not know that the paper is going to be about The Yellow Wallpaper. But, what I did like about this paper was that they related the story to the media.

So, in conclusion in my research paper I hope to be persuasive, effectively argue against critics who disagree with me, integrate quotes seamlessly, and make an argument that matters and relates to real life. Also, I want to avoid being unclear, boring, and confusing the reader.