Reflections on Paper Comments--Mackenzie Tudor

Before I got the comments from the class I was feeling very stuck with my paper. The direction I had started taking my paper in wasn't working. I had found new elements concerning woman and his background that were compelling but I could not fit them into my present argument. The class helped me figure out what I had to do to make it work. I decided to alter my argument to be about John Dunton's decision to write the letters as a means to make money. With this in mind I reevaluted why he would make the connection between England's concerns about maintaining traditional roles and the Anglican religion and New England.

I also decided that I needed to restructure my paper. I felt that I needed to end with John Dunton's background and reiterate the proof that he had monetary aims in his construction of the paper. Furthermore, I tried to make the paper flow by removing the section and creating transitory sentences.

A big comment I got from the class and my professors was that I needed more actual quotes from the source. So, I reevaluated the source and pulled about three times the amount of quotes I had before. I was able to add some examples to the background information and simply get more direct quotes for all the points I made about John Dunton.

The section on woman was especially confusing for some. Therefore, I decided to elaborate on my points about English societies viewpoint on woman by expanding the quotes I used from Dunton. Even more so, I was able to pull comparisons from Dunton's depiction of ideal women to his depiction of not ideal woman. I also removed the personal information about Dunton and women because I did not think it fit what I was trying to say.

Lastly, I expanded on Dunton's past works and why is plagiarism is only relative because of the extent he used it to try to sell popular ideas to the English people. I did this by pulling more quotes from the introduction and from throughout Dunton.

The classes comments were very helpful. The last couple of weeks have been a lot of work for me because I did have to take my paper in such a different direction. However, the input I received from my classmates gave me a direction and eased my frustrations. The only thing I wish was that the class was longer because every time I reevaluate my source new sides to my argument arise and I wish I had more time to incorporate them.