Portfolio 1-EL150: Intro to Literary Study

Portfolio 1 -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
This is my first online blog portfolio. I have never done an online portfolio before, so this should be interesting. This portfolio includes blog entries on assigned readings, entries of my peers that I have posted comments on, entries that have provoked class discussions, and a plethora of other entries concerning different concepts discussed in class. I had never done any kind of blogging before I took this class, and I must admit it is sometimes a hassle to post them on time, but effective for classroom discussions in the long run.

COVERAGE:
This section contains links to all of the blogs that were posted as agenda items, or responses to the assigned reading. An agenda item consists of a quote from the reading that provoked some sort of response or idea about the reading and then an elaboration on the said idea.

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/climbing_into_the_barbers_chai.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/how_to_read_literature_like_a.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/the_ups_and_downs_of_a_canarys.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/why_im_in_english_and_not_math.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/scary_mermaids_of_death.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/a_confused_misfit.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/enlightened_once_again.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/poetry_is_so_complicated.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/humans_or_machines.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/antagonists_can_be_good_guys.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/no_good_deed_goes_unpunished.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/prufrocks_severed_head.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/secrets_in_the_setting.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/strangers_have_the_best_candy.html

Depth:
I haven't really had any reason to go as far indepth with my blogging as to do research outside of the assigned reading. One entry was an exception, though. I was using Charles Dickens's Great Expectations as an example to reinforce a point I was trying to make, and I felt compelled to search on the Internet and find the name of Miss Havisham's house because I forgot it.

This is my blog:
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/secrets_in_the_setting.html

Here is the link to the website where I found the name of Miss Havisham's house:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/themes.html

This is the paragraph containing the information that I was searching for:
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Satis House
In Satis House, Dickens creates a magnificent Gothic setting whose various elements symbolize Pip�s romantic perception of the upper class and many other themes of the book. On her decaying body, Miss Havisham�s wedding dress becomes an ironic symbol of death and degeneration. The wedding dress and the wedding feast symbolize Miss Havisham�s past, and the stopped clocks throughout the house symbolize her determined attempt to freeze time by refusing to change anything from the way it was when she was jilted on her wedding day. The brewery next to the house symbolizes the connection between commerce and wealth: Miss Havisham�s fortune is not the product of an aristocratic birth but of a recent success in industrial capitalism. Finally, the crumbling, dilapidated stones of the house, as well as the darkness and dust that pervade it, symbolize the general decadence of the lives of its inhabitants and of the upper class as a whole.

Interaction:
In this section I have posted some of my peers' blogs on which I have commented. It is important to comment on peers' blogs because it provokes classroom discussion. These are not all of the entries I have posted on, but of course I didn't print out all of the blogs I left comments on like I should have, and this is the result of a lot of hassle and pain-in-the-butt searching.

On Matt Henderson's:
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MatthewHenderson/2007/01/god_or_the_devil_is_in_the_det.html#more

On Bethany Merryman's:
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyMerryman/2007/01/i_love_disney.html#comments

On Lorin Schumacher's:
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LorinSchumacher/2007/01/winter_the_seas.html#comments

On Derek Tickle's:
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DerekTickle/2007/01/a_walk_in_time.html#comments

On Diana Geleskie's:
This one doesn't provide a direct link to the comments. I don't know why, but I commented on the first entry I Say Potato, You Say Potato-Let's Call The Whole Thing Off!!
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DianaGeleskie/2007_01.html

Discussions:
These are some of my blog entries that classmates have left particularly discussion-sparking comments:

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/how_to_read_literature_like_a.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/the_ups_and_downs_of_a_canarys.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/scary_mermaids_of_death.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/02/poetry_is_so_complicated.html

Timeliness:
Timeliness with blogging has definitely not been one of my strongpoints so far; it is a rare but existing phenomena, consisting of only two to four entries that I have actually posted on time (a.k.a. twenty-four hours before class). Most of my entries have appeared anywhere from half an hour before class to a day or two after the class, although I usually have all the reading done on time. This is not a good thing, and I really must try to post on time. However, here are the few entries that will make this the saddest section of my portfolio:

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/blogs_huh.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/does_success_equal_happiness_o.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/climbing_into_the_barbers_chai.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/how_to_read_literature_like_a.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/the_ups_and_downs_of_a_canarays.html

Okay...So there were five...Still, very sad....

Xenoblogging:
This section displays entries from classmates that I was first to post on

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/CheraPupi/2007/02/you_who_me.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MichaelPoiarkoff/2007/02/after_class_im_going_to_go_eat.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/HallieGeary/2007/02/nonbiblical_allusion.html

Wild Card:
This is just a random entry that I thought was a particularly good one. I've already posted it a couple other times in this portfolio, but I think it's definitely up there with one of the best.

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2007/01/the_ups_and_downs_of_a_canarys.html