This was a pretty cool experience. I honestly just picked a random author out of my textbook and did some research on him and I actually found William Dean Howells very interesting. I found it extremely interesting and admirable that he openly opposed so many social issues that other people might remain quite about. I like the fact that Howells jumped out of the bandwagon and challenged the notion of ignorance. He would write stories about people that had an idealistic vision of the world and had no idea what the world was really like. These people in his stories would then be hit by the real, un-romanticized, indiscriminate version of the world and something bad would happen because they had no idea how to react to the real world. He did this to warn people of the harsh consequences of ignorance, he was trying to tell people that if they go into the real world thinking that everything will be great for them and they will never fall then they will inevitably crash and burn because they have no idea how to handle the real world; they are not prepared for it. I never really thought about idealism versus realism before but after reading about Howells and his stories I understand completely were he is coming from and I think that is why I like Howells so much. He tries to open peoples eyes and make them less ignorant and he does it through the relatively entertaining atmosphere of fiction.
Creating a website was an awesome experience for me. I have done nothing but right papers and essays for all of my other English classes, both in high school and in college, and it is an extremely boring process. This project is new and different and I think that it is much more involving than writing a paper. I also liked the fact that I had more freedom to do what I wanted. Papers and essays are so strict, you write about one thing and you cannot step out of the boundaries and it is just so bland. With this website, though, I have the option to include pictures, videos, and all sorts of cool things besides just text. I would prefer this project over a paper or essay any day.
Creating a website was an awesome experience for me. I have done nothing but right papers and essays for all of my other English classes, both in high school and in college, and it is an extremely boring process. This project is new and different and I think that it is much more involving than writing a paper. I also liked the fact that I had more freedom to do what I wanted. Papers and essays are so strict, you write about one thing and you cannot step out of the boundaries and it is just so bland. With this website, though, I have the option to include pictures, videos, and all sorts of cool things besides just text. I would prefer this project over a paper or essay any day.