Week 9: Famous Last Words - Accepting Defeat

I'm still recovering from my weekend. I was in the homecoming assembly (Wizard of Oz group, black chick in the front - maybe you saw me!) which was pretty darn exhausting, and don't even get me started on that devastating game Saturday. It just was not my boy, Money-cutt's day. But I've moved on from that! I mean, it's not like I've been sulking all weekend, dreading facing my co-workers on Monday (who, despite the fact that they live in NORMAN, are predominantly Pokes fans.) Nope, I've put on my big girl pants and I'm taking the advice on one Mr. Daniel Radcilffe.

Is there anything we can't learn from Harry Potter? (source: Flikr)

 

Anyways, all dashed Big 12 Championship dreams aside, this week has had a lot of highs and lows. This week has really been all about learning to accept defeat. I finally decided to cut my losses and go ahead and drop the Biochem class that has been plaguing me all semester. The thing was, since I changed my major to Biology Pre-PA (oh hey, guys, I changed my major to Biology Pre-PA) I didn't actually need biochem anymore and since I wasn't doing well in it (which is an understatement) the only thing it would do for me was drag down my GPA. I stuck it out as long as I could, but man, Kenny Rogers got it right when he said "you gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away." So again, I was forced to don my big girl pants and make a decision. That was bittersweet because though I hate, hate, HATE to admit defeat, not having that class killing me everyday is a huge weight off my shoulders. Now that midterms are basically done, I'm living in a sort of eerie calm until the next wave of tests hits. Hopefully, this time around will be less stressful as I am hoping to try out some new study techniques...and hopefully stay on top of my work so I don't go into that I have-a-week-to-learn-five-chapters-of-material panic. Remember, guys: all study tips are appreciated!

Famous Last Words - The Art of Studying

One word: Midterms. I feel as though my schedule has gone all sorts of topsy turvy throwing all of my energy into studying. Add that to a weekend in which, lets be honest, not a lot of work got done, and that makes for a pretty hectic Monday. No regrets, though, because OU/Texas weekend was fantastic!

There's only one!

 Luckily, I'm almost done, so I'll be able to breathe at least for awhile. This past week of extensive studying has had me beginning to really analyze my study habits and methods. For me, unfortunately, studying for exams is a bit of a process of trial and error which typically involves me studying for a test with a specific approach and then altering my method depending on how well I do on the exam. I haven't really come across very many study methods that translate effectively across all classes. For some classes, I've found that making study guides is super helpful, for other classes that doesn't work as well. Some classes, I can study and annotate the book directly and do well, but for other classes, the professor seems to pull questions out of nowhere for a test. There are, however, a few methods that I've discovered (some fairly recently) that I think are pretty universally effective. To name a few:

Charts:
So last week, I had a Molecular Bio Midterm and a Organic Chem Lab Midterm. Studying for both of these exams consisted of constructing a number of charts and tables. My format for these charts is typically to have a column in which I name the term or concept, explain the process or system, identify the materials or machinery involved, and explain why this concept is significant. I feel that this is a good way to begin to organize and think critically about different concepts I am introduced to and am rather unfamiliar with.

Flashcards:
This may seem a little elementary, but I believe this to be, hands down, the best way to memorize any type of information. Enzymes and their functions? Flashcards. Greek gods and their Roman counterpart? Flashcards. Amino Acids? Flashcards. They haven't let me down yet! However, I use them as a tool strictly for memorization, usually to supplement full comprehension of a subject. Understanding how replication in a cell proceeds is a lot easier when I know the different enzymes and proteins involved and what each one does.

Drawing Pictures:
I am a huge visual learner, so drawing pictures of different processes and elements (even if I'm just copying a figure out of book) helps me to better understand what exactly is happening. In Biology, I used to draw out every cell cycle because actually writing it down in my own hand helped me retain the information better.

These are just a few of the methods I tend to use when studying. There are others, naturally, but these seem to be work across multiple subjects. Something I've noticed that I struggle with in terms of studying is studying for multiple exams in the same week. I've improved over the years, but it seems that there is always one subject to which I don't devote enough attention which may or may not cause my exam score to suffer. For that I hope to possibly gain some insight from my fellow classmates. Last week I had one midterm on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I didn't begin studying for the Thursday exam until after my Wednesday exam had passed. This worked out for me this time, but perhaps you have a better method.

Happy Monday, Everyone!
(Boomer Sooner)

Image information: Personal photo of me and my roommate at the OU/Texas game (source: Facebook)

Week 7: Famous Last Words - My Fellow Writers

Four days, that's all I have to make it through this week and then I get to go to OU/Texas.

This is my mantra for this week. Come on, guys! We can do it!

BOOOOMER! (image source: Flickr)

This week, well really every week, I've been utterly blown away by the writing of my fellow classmates. I mean, wow! I read some of it and think to myself, how are you not a published writer? Then again, I suppose some of you could be. In that case, I'm always on the look out for a good book, you guys!

Reading others' work, it's next to impossible not to play the compare game, but I've learned that it's really unfair to compare my style to that of others. I have noticed that there are a few elements that I would say make a particular story "great" in my humble opinion. I've listed a few below:

Setting
When I have a real sense of the place in which the story is taking place, when I can hear the crunching of leaves underfoot, see the extravagance of the palace, or hear the rushing of the stream, I am immediately drawn into a story. Setting description can be made or broken with -

Details, Details, Details
Now, obviously we've only got about a thousand words with which to create a story so I'm not saying you should go all Charles Dickens with your details, but I do think it definitely adds to a story to add a certain amount of depth to a story.Once again, this may be difficult to achieve in a storytelling post, but I say for a storybook story, go for it!

Some Sort of Quirk
Whether it's an unconventional perspective, storytelling format, or you've gone with an unexpected setting (whether time or place) I am always wowed by some of the interesting spins I've seen in you all's stories. I think seeking to throw some sort of twist into a storytelling or storybook story without fail makes for a captivating post simply because it catches the reader by surprise. The unexpected is always great when reading a story.

This is (once again) all in my humble opinion. I've encountered some extremely talented writers and feel privileged to have my work critiqued by you all. I look forward to reading more!

Happy OU/Texas Week!

Horns Down! (image source: BlogSpot)

Week 6: Famous Last Words - The Storyteller

Oh my goodness, where is the semester going? Is it really almost time for week 7?! There seriously needs to be a day in between Saturday and Sunday because by the time I get to Saturday evening I feel a little bit like this:

Homer's Scream (image source:BlogSpot)

But I must persevere.

 It's been really interesting to read stories and posts from other people in the class and get ideas for my own writing style. This week, I've been working on writing from the third-person storyteller perspective. I used this method in both my storytelling for this week and in my first story for my storybook. It's pretty different from how I usually write, but I feel that it can add another dimension to a story. It's different from the third-person omniscient perspective in that the reader receives some commentary about the events occurring in the story rather than just the events themselves. Sure this commentary could be biased, and the narrator is less reliable than an omniscient narrator, but I think that the commentary provided  has the ability to provide analysis about important themes within the story or novel. One of the greatest examples I can think of where this proves true is in one of my all-time favorite novels, The Great Gatsby. Literary critics have called Nick an unreliable narrator, but I don't believe the readers would have been able to grasp the tragic beauty or the "greatness" of the character Gatsby if he were described by a more removed voice.

I can't in anyway say that I've achieved anything close to Fitzgerald level commentary with the use of the storyteller perspective - I should be so lucky as to even offer a fraction of a fraction of the skilled literary analysis he provides with Gatsby - but I hope with practice, I could use this style of writing to provide deeper insight into my own writing.

Week 4: Famous Last Words

This week, I've really enjoyed trying out different writing styles and experimenting with them in my storytelling. When we were asked to come up with different styles for the storybook project last week, I initially had a hard time coming up with four different styles. It caused me to really have to think about what my personal style is, and how I could depart from said style. For instance, I typically write in the third person narrative though I do switch between limited and omniscient, at least I think I do - sometimes I find it difficult to say for sure. So for my storybook introduction, I decided to switch things up just a bit and write from the first person perspective. This was fun and interesting as I got to experiment with the narrator's voice and personality. I think that is the best part of writing in the first person - the creation of personality. You can, of course, create a character's personality in a third person perspective, but that comes mostly from direct characterization, and outside party telling exactly what a certain character is like. With direct characterization, however, you begin to get into some of the questions like "is the narrator reliable? Can I trust what he/she is saying about this character?" In respect to third person omniscient, the answer is, most likely, yes, but you can't really know for sure. Then there's the third person limited perspective in which the story is being told about other people from the perspective of an outsider to the story. This style may contain bias about certain characters. I think the most interesting way to gain a sense of a character is through indirect characterization, reviewing the thoughts, actions, and words of the character in question. Sure, the narrator can tell  you things about himself/herself and be lying, but dialogue doesn't like, and a character's actions don't lie, and what one is thinking certainly doesn't lie. This week I hope to experiment more with first person narration to step outside of my comfort zone just a little more. Hopefully it works out for me!

Random Fun Fact: Did you know that the novel Crime and Punishment was originally written in the first person? Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote almost the entire book (about 300 pages!) in the first person before scrapping the *entire* thing in order to rewrite the novel in the third person. Why might he have done that? What does one gain in the third person perspective that cannot be attained in the first person? What does one lose? Maybe Dostoyevsky was trying to reveal something, or keep something hidden

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment

(Image source:WikiSpaces)

Week 2: Famous Last Words

So this past week has been pretty hectic but I've actually really enjoyed all of the work that I've done for this class.

I think if I had to pick a writing of mine that I think was the "best" (it's a little awkward judging my own work) I would have to pick the Storytelling post. It has been a long time since I've done any sort of creative writing really (Life of a science major...) so it was fun to just start going and see where my imagination (who knew I even still had one of those!) took me. I also really liked reading others' work. Some of the Storytelling posts blew me away with their creativity and also the style of writing. It made me eager to try out some different styles of writing in my own future posts.

Fun Fact: this is actually the second mythology class I'm enrolled in for this semester. I'm also enrolled in Classical Mythology which I LOVE. Seriously, my nerdy side (the one that reads mythology in her spare time) has fully emerged and this is the first class I've had in awhile that I am legitimately excited to go to everyday. I HIGHLY recommend taking the course as maybe a western civ (like I'm doing) or if you just have a free elective, especially if you're really enjoying the readings and course work in this class. Even if you're (like me) a science major, math major, or any kind of major that really has nothing to do with the humanities, I think it's really important to take a break from theorems and formulas every once in awhile, even if its only for the length of a 3 hour course for one semester. That's part of the reason I'm enrolled in this class as well (also extreme nerdiness and love for all things mythology!)

Well I'm just amazed that I made it through this first few weeks of the semester! It was touch and go there for awhile...

Homer Simpson - "Woohoo!"

Have a great week everyone!