November 2015 Books

Hi Guys!

Today I have all the texts I have read during November. Again I have had a lot to read for my course, but I have also tried to read more for pleasure this month. Next months should have more reading for pleasure as I have finished all my semester one texts.


1. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

This is a book that I first read last year and at first I found it really boring! However when I study it, I quite enjoy the different interpretations. I'm going to do a 2,000 word assignment about the effect of the monster's voice which is a really good question for me. The narrative structure and Shelley's wonderful ability to create empathy for the monster despite how many people he kills.


2. Hero - Directed by Zhang Yimou

This is technically a film, but I did study it as part of my literature course. Therefore I thought I would include it. I don't really like this, but I appreciate the techniques that were used. Particularly I like the use of different colours in the different scenes to convey the mood.

3. Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare

This is a text that I have always wanted to study this right since GCSE all those years ago. It wasn't what I was expecting, but then I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It is one of Shakespeare's comedies, but I have to say I preferred The Taming of the Shrew that I studied two years ago. I found that more comic than this. However this is the last of Shakespeare's comedies so maybe he was moving more towards tragedy as in many ways it is more of a comic tragedy.

4. If I Stay - Gayle Forman

Whenever I describe this to people they always think it's really depressing and it is. It is basically about a girl called Mia who is in a car accident and has to choose between life and death. However in some ways the mood is lifted throughout the book as Mia tells stories about her family and her childhood, which makes you understand how much she has truly lost. I really enjoyed the film when it came out and I have to say it stuck quite well to the book, which is something that I love. There's nothing worse than reading a book and then watching the film and then being disappointed that the director has left huge chunks out. Or even worse have added things (yes I am referring to the Kenneth Branagh version of Frankenstein). Also I got this on audiobook which meant I could listen to it on the go.

7. Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

This one was a strange one! It is essentially about a man who turns into a cockroach. However it definitely has a deeper meaning. My feeling is that it is about shell shock as it was produced in 1915, during the First World War.

5. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 

Firstly he definitely wins the award for the hardest author's name to pronounce that I have seen so far! Secondly this book is amazing. I watched the film when it came out in 2010 and at the time I hadn't studied literature so I didn't spend all the film analysing it and therefore read it at face value. I recently watched the film again and I looked at it completely different. It made me realise that the 13 year old that watched this really had no idea what was going on really. I spend all the film analysing everything, which was really great. It stuck really well to the book which was great! It is dark, but not unimaginable. I got into the story to a certain extent and this was great. I think that if I hadn't already chosen to Frankenstein to do for my assignment, then it would have been a toss up between this and the next book I'm going to mention.

6. Room - Emma Donoghue

I absolutely love this book! It is the last book I'm going to study this semester, but it was more like reading for pleasure. It was the first book for ages that I have got into so much that I did not want to put it down. It is twice as long as Never Let Me Go, but I finished this about 3 days before finishing Never Let Me Go. It is a story of a mother and son who are locked in a room. It would have been really especially as it is a true story. However being from a 5 year old's perspective it is lighter and slightly comic as he doesn't truly understand the world. This lifts the mood making it a more enjoyable read.

8. Studying English Literature - Tory Young

This is a small textbook which is designed for students starting an English Literature degree. Parts it is a bit like she's teaching you how to suck eggs. But it is good for knowing about the differences in university and is brilliant for people like me who do not have any close family members who have been to university.

9. Bliss - Katherine Mansfield

I have to do a presentation on this short story in less than two weeks! Eek! I didn't mind it. It has a lot of good imagery and metaphors, which is what we have chosen to do our presentation on. I have to do about class, which I don't mind.

10. Escape from New York - Zadie Smith

This is the first of four other texts that I had to read that other presentation groups are doing. I don't have to properly study these, but I do have to have read them. This one is based on 9/11 and is quite interesting and slightly confusing. I quite enjoyed it.

11. Inglan is a Bitch - Linton Kwesi-Johnson 

This was an interesting piece of performance poetry which is criticising Thatcher's Britain. I love the fact that the poem is written phonetically so it emphasises the Jamaican accent. If you are going to read this I would suggest you watching him perform it as it is unnatural how calm he is!

12. The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster

This one was a strange one and it was very intense. You could imagine it being real life. I was surprised it was written as early as 1909 as I would have guessed that it was much more modern by how much it is related to real life. It is very accurate to what is happening right now.

13. A Jury of her Peers - Susan Glaspell

It is quite a good read. It is all about the inequality of woman at the time of production. It is very much a feminist text and I kind of wished that I had picked this text.

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Process of Writing Assignments

Hi Guys!

The process of writing an assignment for university is a long process so making sure you start early is extremely important. Going through the process in small bursts helps it to feel manageable and also means you're well focused on what you are doing. Today I thought I would share with you the process that I use.


Step 1 - Pick a Question

Even before I read the texts I think about what question I want to answer. You may have 2 or 3 potential questions that you want to do and this is fine in the early stages. Picking your question before reading the text helps to focus your active reading (close reading as you go along).


Step 2 - Reading

As you have already picked a question it will be easier to gather evidence for your question while you read, rather than you having to flick through later when you are doing your plan. Also lectures and seminars will help to get inspiration from others.

Step 3 - Look for Evidence

I use the library system to look for anything that remotely relates to the question I have picked. At this stage I don't look at the actual sources in detail I just quickly get them together. I try to get as many sources as possible so I know that I have a wide range to choose from. I tend to use most of them and only occasionally don't use one as it doesn't really relate to the question. I normally put them on google drive or in an email to myself so I don't lose them.

Step 4 - Highlighting Sources

With this step I look at my sources in more detail. I look at each article or book individually, highlighting or making notes of anything relevant to the question I have chosen. I also make a note of anything that is said in more than one article, especially if they disagree as this will help with cross referencing. Also if I have a lot of sources then I write a small paragraph giving the main point that the article is making and what different elements are relevant to my question. This helps to make it easier to find evidence when making the plan.

Step 5 - Writing a Plan

Everybody writes plan different, but I personally like to write quite an extensive plan so it is easier when writing the essay. I use a lot of colour to draw attention to certain things. For example I write all of my quotes from secondary research in green so that I can quickly look through to see if I have enough and which areas are lacking in research. I also make sure I know exactly what each paragraph is so I do not go off topic too much. I generally write too many points so that I have plenty to put into my essay. This will help to make sure that I reach the word count and also will make sure that I don't ramble. Sometimes when writing my essay I do take away points if I find that they don't fit or flow right.

Step 6 - Writing the Assignment

As crazy as it sounds to me this is the easiest step. You have all the information that you need and your plan next to you on the desk all you have to do is write it! It normally find that by the time I get to this step I am feeling confident and am ready to start writing. I usually write my essay in one sitting as I like to just get it over and done with and I find that it generally flows better. It usually takes around 2 hours to write an essay, but I can sometimes do it in less. I purely just write the essay and try not to pay attention too much to the word count as you can easily cut this down when editing.

Step 7 - Editing

I usually go about 100 words over the word count, but this can easily cut down by playing around with sentences. I usually print it off and mark it like a teacher would. This helps me to understand exactly which changes I have made and which I still have to do when I'm editing it on word. I usually first focus on changing some phrases so it take up less of the word count. You would not believe how much my word count decreases when I cut all of the times I write 'In order to' from my essay. I then go through and ready my essay to make sure it makes sense and doesn't stray from the question. Finally before submitting it I do one final check to make sure there are no typos or spelling mistakes.

I hope this has helped some of you if you have assignments coming up.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Worrying About What Other People Think!

Hi Guys!

Today I thought I would talk about something which I have let myself spend too much time over and that is worrying too much about what other people think. This is something that I have constantly done over pretty much anything throughout my teenage years and something which I am trying to do less of now.

That it not to say that I never worry about what others think of me, of course I do, it's human nature. I simply do not let it rule my entire life.

Throughout school and sixth form I have let myself be ruled by how I would be perceived by people my own age. I now realise that this probably one of the reasons why I was so shy at this time as I was worried what people would think if I was any more confident. I also worried how people would react if I suggested something. This is why whenever someone would ask me what I wanted to do, I would always answer "I don't know" as I was worried that they would shoot down my idea making me feel like a complete idiot. However this approach only made the person asking mildly annoyed and made the situation last for longer.

Also I had a problem with asking questions. As I got older people generally tended to ask less questions as we generally knew what we were doing more. However this meant that I was not as used to asking questions and would feel stupid if I needed to ask one. I was worried that people would think I was stupid for not knowing what the answer was. However when I got my first job over the summer I found that I needed to ask question in order to know what I was. What I found was that people were more than happy to answer the questions I had. In fact they were happier if I asked the question than did something wrong or did not do it at all. As a result I find it easier to ask questions at university as sometimes others will want to know the same thing as you.

Since leaving sixth form I have found that I care less about what people think about me. I have realised that the people whose opinion of me I thought were so important I no longer with me and those who are surely would want what is better for me. I suppose I have realised that the only opinion that matters is my own. I am the one that has to live with the situations I find myself in and I am the one that has to live with the consequences of what I am doing with my life. One of the reasons I realised that I don't want to be at university was that I didn't care what anybody thought if I left university. As soon as a year ago I would have felt ashamed at what others would think of me especially my extended family and people at school (most of which won't remember my name in ten years time). Now I don't care! I know why I want to leave and feel I am happy with and can justify my decision. If people think I have made a wrong decision then that's up to them, but they didn't have to live through these last few weeks. If they truly love me then they will accept by decision. If they don't, then quite frankly I couldn't give a shit!

Viennese Whirls

Hi Guys!

So today I thought I would do a baking post for you. I first tried doing these last weekend and they turned out really well even though I didn't have the right flour. However it would be the one weekend I didn't take my camera home so I couldn't take any blog photos. Therefore I thought I would make them again this week using the correct flour. These look way harder than they actually are and will really impress people! Also it will help to improve your piping skills having to pipe both the biscuits and the icing, so get your piping bags at the ready!

This recipe is actually from the hairy bikers of all people and can be found here.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

250g/9oz butter

50g/2oz icing sugar (and a bit to decorate if you fancy)

250g/9oz Plain Flour

50g/2oz cornflour (the first time I did this I didn't have cornflour and ran out plain flour half way through so did half plain flour and half self raising and they turned out pretty well)

½ tsp vanilla extract

For the icing:

100g/3½oz soft butter

200g/7oz icing sugar, plus ½ tsp for dusting

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

You can also use some jam in the middle, but personally I prefer them without.

Steps for Biscuits:

Step 1 

Preheat your oven to 190C/170C (fan)/Gas 5 and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Step 2

Put all of your ingredients for the biscuits into a food processor. I personally used by KitchenAid with the paddle attachment which seemed to work fine.

Step 3

Pipe your biscuits onto the greaseproof paper using a star nozzle. Don't worry if you are not very good at piping and quality control as they will look fine once they have baked.

Step 4

Bake for 13-15 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool down whilst you make the icing.

Step 5 

To make the icing, put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat until light and smooth.

Step 6

Put your icing into a piping bag and pipe onto the biscuits using a star nozzle (I lost mine so used a round nozzle instead, but it seemed to work pretty well). Then place another biscuit on top. Sieve a small amount of icing sugar on top before serving.

Hope you enjoy making them as much as I did! I should have another baking blogpost coming along soon.

Thanks for stopping by! :)