Snow day

[icepixie]

There have been big, fat flakes of snow falling since I got up at nine o'clock this morning, and not a one of them has stuck to the ground. On the one hand, I don't care for snow, so this is not a bad thing. On the other, it feels very...unfinished.

Also, if this means that the wet ground is going to freeze into a sheet of ice tonight and still be around tomorrow morning when I have to drive to campus, I will be pissed.

*

I have to write a paper by Friday. This paper, which is a five-pager, does not need to use any critical sources, according to my professor. Small problem: I haven't written a paper without secondary sources since I was a junior in high school. I have forgotten how to write a paper without critical backup. Even when I was writing BS, it was always well-cited BS!

Hmm. Well, I suppose she won't mind if I do include some quotations or whatnot, but my other problem is that no one has written about the aspect of Mary Barton I plan to discuss. Perhaps this is because I will have trouble ekeing five pages out of it, much less a journal article, but still. (I know, I know, this is an opportunity, not a problem, but still.)

Oof. Need to write now.

Comments

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I had to do two short critical papers in my first semester that sound a lot like what you're doing. Some advisors would allow critical backup, but mine wanted them to be all me. It's not that hard--you just cite the book itself for backup rather than someone else. You'll do fine! :)

[icepixie]

But I have no validation! Nor do I have anyone to disagree with! :(

[alto2.livejournal.com]

You get your validation from the book itself--what better source could you have?

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds like my ideal assignment. I always hate being required to cite other critics in my English papers, because I get jealous of my arguments. :).

[icepixie]

Someone hasn't been in a college lit department in a while! Validation now comes from other critics. The book is immaterial. I'll have to put your name on the mailing list for that kind of info.

;)

[icepixie]

If I could give it to you, I would. I feel so naked.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

But if you're not supposed to use another source, what choice do you have? This is the sort of thing I have to do all the time, because the idea is that I'm learning directly from the books I'm reading. Seems a shame that it would ever be done any other way. ::thanks lucky stars yet again that she landed at Goddard::