Draft #3

On friday, the class was returned our second drafts of the final paper. I made a good amount of changes from draft 1 to draft 2 but was not sure what to expect. I received the same grade on the second draft as i did on the first draft. I am happy about this result, as an 83 is a good grade. I have however, made more changes to my paper and plan on making this grade go up even further. So far the paper has been tough, but not too challenging. We have had a lot of time to work on this paper, which has made it much easier to write. The topics of our papers are very specific, and that has made it hard to find evidence. There is only so much materials on real estate in florida from 1900-1930. I have nonetheless found lots of information and plan on adding more to my paper. Im trying to take the suggestions on my paper and fix the problems. The one problem that i find hard to manage is dealing with the passive voice. After the first draft, a major problem was the tense issue, and i still have not sorted out that problem. I plan on going to TJ's for help with this. Overall, i feel confident in this paper and have actually learned a lot in writing it.

End of Semester

For the next couple of weeks I will be focusing on finishing up my rough draft and make it my final draft. I definitely need to work on adding pictures. I plan to go back to the archives on my own time. Unfortunately, when we went I was not incredibly motivated, so I hope that when I go back and I'm a little more awake I will be able to accomplish more! I also plan on beginning to study for the final over break. It's hard to believe that we only have four more classes.

Revisions to Second Draft

I plan to do a comprehensive proof reading of my graded second draft and plan to revise the ending quite a bit. The conclusion I have made based on the time period in which Hamilton Holt made his decision is probably going to remain but I hope to add a bit more clarity and purpose in the body portion of the paper to augment the endings impact. Furthermore the correction and of many formatting issues and the addition of more cited sources is on my list to create the final draft.

Final Draft

During these next weeks I will be trying to finish my final draft. I have to dig through the archives a bit more. I am searching for critical reviews of the movie theaters I am writing about. I hope to find out what the people thought of these theaters when they were in their prime. I am hoping this will add the personal perspective I am looking for in my paper. It should help develop my thesis that these movie theaters were more than just that, but rather a place where the communities come together.  Hopefully I will find all the information I am looking for so I can make my paper a finished product.

Hannibal Square Paper

This week I will be putting the final touches to my Hannibal Square research paper. I feel very good about the research I put into the paper and how it is turning out. I mainly will be working to correct some of the errors in my footnotes as well as eliminating all of the sentences with passive tense. I'm excited to submit my final draft to Dr. Chambliss and get my final grade on it, and maybe see if the paper could be useful for the Winter Park Historical Museum, or the Heritage Center in Hannibal Square. Overall, I found the story to be very compelling, and I found it sort of fun digging up newspaper articles and history books talking about the controversy of Hannibal Square.

Almost There

Well, there's very little time before the end of the semester and the paper being due. I think my paper has come together well. When we were in the archives the other day they showed me a paper that a professor had written on Bucklin Moon. The paper, however, was far from helpful. I took a look, thinking that it may give me insight into something I missed, but the entire paper was about Moon's works, not his life. None of the sources were even helpful. It was an interesting idea, but the other paper didn't fit with mine.

But here we are, with the final draft upon us. I'm constantly going back through and changing sentences and adding a couple of things here and there, in a word, trying to make it perfect. I keep finding things that I want to put in and other things that I believe are too wordy. But I vow to turn in the best paper I can, so I will keep working on it until I turn it in. I may even find some corrections that I'll write on the final draft, haha.

the finish line

Well, it's almost that time; only three weeks left in the semester and only 2 more paragraphs to write. I'm pretty pleased with the way my paper turned out. The only thing I wish was that it could be longer...I sent out some emails the other day to everyone involved in the music department at Winter Park High School, asking if anyone would mind answering some questions about the music program and how it has developed over the years, and I got some very positive responses. I would love to be able to interview these people and put it in my paper, but that would push me over 8 pages and so I can't. That's the only thing i feel that my paper is missing -- a concise analysis of the history of music education in Winter Park. I have some information from my interview with Clyde Hall, but the problem with that interview is that it only gives me the perspective of a young black man's experience during that time period, and it is fairly obvious that a young white person's educational experience would have been different than that.

It has been fairly difficult to find information about the history of music in Winter Park, but I feel like I've done a pretty good job finding what I can. Most of my information comes from primary documents; actually, on second thought, nearly all of my information comes from primary documents, with one or two small exceptions. Really all I have left at this point is to finish my citations and actually do them right, and also to find a couple of pictures of the various people and places that I mention throughout (e.g. Clyde Hall). I just can't believe the semester is almost over!

Work on Paper

Just a quick post about how my work is coming on the research paper. After handing in the rough draft, I feel good about the work i have so far. I have a lot of good evidence and think that i have some good analysis. I was provided with good feedback, and worked to make some good adjustments on the second draft. The one thing that i struggled with however, was correcting the use of a passive voice in my paper. I plan on going to the writing center to have them take a look and help my sort out my prose. The second draft, was not too difficult since i already had a decent first draft. I added my conclusion, and some more evidence and analysis, and i still plan on adding more. So far, i would say that i feel confident about the paper and feel good about my topic of real estate and the florida land boom.

Second draft

I know that i'm a little late on this, but i just turned my computer on and remembered about this. So I'm doing it now, whether it's late or not.
So the paper has been an interesting experience for me. The chicago style is so much different than the MLA that I'm used to. But I think I'm getting a handle on it, and the second draft came together much easier than the first draft. Some of that probably stemmed from having it mostly written anyway, but i think i am doing much better with this paper than i had been. I hope you all are doing better as well!

2nd Draft and DOA

This past week has been intersting in history class. Regarding my research paper i turned in my second draft this week. I made it a little longer, expanded on some points, and put in my footnotes. I met with TJ's to follow the recommendations that were put on my first draft which were to work on clarity and organization. I am confident in turning in my second draft and only hope that my paper continues to improve.
In class this week we watched DOA. I thought that it was a very interesting movie and i loved how the parallels of the time of the cold war and the fear was portrayed through this film. I am normally not a fan of older films nor those in black and white but i was actually quite impressed with this film. It kept me interested and it also gave me a good perspective on how things were seen due to the atomic threats and cold war through the plot of the film.

D.O.A. and Film Nior

This week in History class we watched the classic movie D.O.A. The movie is of the Film Nior genre, which was created in the fifties during the Cold War. Basically the movies are Cold War scare movies. D.O.A. is about a man who goes on vacation in San Francisco to escape his over-attached girlfriend. While he is in a bar, a stranger poors a poison, luminous, into his drink. Luminous is a special kind of poison because, as the protagonist finds out later, it has no antidote, and he will be dead within a few days. The movie goes on with the protagonist doing some detective work to figure out who killed him and why. The film relates to the fears Americans had during the Cold War because many believed that when the USSR would attack, it would be sudden and too late to do anything to respond. Like the protagonist, it was feared that America would be dead before there could be any action to reverse it. I found D.O.A. and the Film Nior genre in general interesting because that sort of fear really isn't prevalent anymore. While we are at conflict with Middle Eastern terrorism at the moment, Americans do not really have the fear of "dying," rather it seems like there is the feeling that we are in more control over what happens to us, and that we can defeat anything that comes to our opposition.

Rough Draft 2

Some altercations that I made to my rough draft is I tried to develop a theme. I decided to write about how the theaters are just more than theaters to the people in the community. They mean so much more to some people. This helped me make it longer because my paper was on the short side. I am still unsatisfied with the length of my paper, but hopefully by the time I have to hand in the final draft it will be adequate. I also fixed the obvious grammatical errors and made I improved my transitions from paragraph to paragraph. Hopefully Dr. Chambliss will have more advice for me to get my paper better.

Second Rough Draft

After going to TJ's on Thursday night, I turned in my second rough draft of my research paper on Friday. I edited the conclusion and tried to make the topic sentences more focused, instead of broad. I also added some more information about the zoo, as well as a story about Rollins students staying in the Langford during the 1980s. I tried to eliminate passive sentences throughout my paper, as well. Overall, I was pleased with the quality of my paper by the time I turned it in and I'm quite confident that my second rough draft is better than my first rough draft.

1947 H.C Second Draft

For my second rough Draft of the Historic Winter Park Project, I added some images which I hope will make it a bit more interesting. Furthermore, I cited more of my sources using footnotes and updated the bibliography. I drew a conclusion at the end of my paper which took into consideration the racial tension that existed in the south during the 1940s and I attempted to show both sides of the issue fairly. My goal was to not only question Holt's motives, but moreover to see his side of the issue, I'm not entirely sure if i was able to accomplish this as of yet, but hopefully I will by the final draft.

Rought Draft #2

Last week we had to turn in our second rough draft. I had the majority of information that I had collected about Winter Park, and my paper was hardly even three pages, so I went to the writing center in hopes that my tutor would be able to help me out in lengthening my paper and polishing it to make it better. After meeting with my tutor, I decided that the best thing that I could do would be to research the wars effect in the entire country, and then to relate the effects to those in Winter Park. I feel as though this greatly improved my paper, and with some more proof-reading and footnotes I feel that I am on the right path. It is hard to believe that we are entering into our second to last full week of classes, finals are just around the corner now.

At this point in my historic Winter Park research paper I am beginning to focus on the letters received by Hamilton Holt as a response to his decision to cancel the Ohio Wesleyan game. Such letters were generally low-key, and un critical, however a few of these letters were harshly toned and almost cynical. Holt did respond to all of the letters I have gone through so far and he appears to have taken the criticism gracefully enough. I believe that i mentioned a specific letter earlier in this blog which exemplified the anger expressed by some alumni.

My Darling Clementine, Rough Draft #2

This week we watched My Darling Clementine, which I thought was an interesting movie. It would have been a little more enjoyable if we weren't squished into the tiny viewing rooms, but was not bad at all. I was getting nervous about having to write such a difficult film essay every week, but luckily my group was wrong and we were all supposed to collaborate in order to write one combined essay. We all met and discussed the essay questions and what we thought was the individual essay, so we pretty much would have had the combined essay finished. This is a big relief. We are closing in on the last couple of weeks of the semester, it's hard to believe that after this week there are only two more weeks of classes. This week I will be working on rough draft #2. I need to polish the first rough draft and to make it sound better, as well as to continue research in order to have more to write about.

More on Hannibal Square

So this week for my blog I thought I'd follow up with some more information to go with the Hannibal Square story of Winter Park. After the De-annexation of Hannibal Square from the Winter Park limits in 1893, the residents were responsible schooling the children and relied on community leaders to be mentors to them. One such leader was S.A. Williams, who served as the "principal" of the Hannibal Square school. Williams was also the founder of the "Advocate" which was the first and last all-black newspaper in Winter Park. As he was a well educated man as well as a journalist, Williams was able to give the children elementary level education in subjects such as reading and writing. Along with help from the local mentors, Hannibal Square also received some help from Rollins College. Rollins, specifically one of its professors, helped fund a library in Hannibal Square, which would not have been able to be built without the help of Rollins. It was difficult for children to receive an education beyond the elementary level because there was not a local school, however some students were able to carpool to a highschool in a near town everyday. Needless to say, the de-annexation of Hannibal Square effected more than just changes in town limits.

Rough Draft

I spent most of this week trying to figure out what I need to do to fix my rough draft. I am trying to find some more information to make my paper stronger. I am having a tough time however taking out information. I feel as though my points are strong. I just want to make my paper thicker. This requires me to go back through my sources and look for information that I did not put into my original rough draft. I feel like I will have a much better second rough draft. I will also see what information Dr. Chambliss has for me and see what he wants me to improve on. After all those corrections I will feel very confident in my second rough draft.

Cutting out the Fat

After turning in my rough draft on Monday, I began to go through and cut out what I could so that this paper doesn't become a book since I have so much information spanning over 60 years.  I am going to try to focus on when Disney's influence in the area began to anger the residents in the Central Florida area (shortly after Epcot was built in 1982).  I think that by focusing in on when Disney ruined its relationship, I'll be able to better explain how that affected the rest of the tourism industry in Central Florida.

revision

This week majority of my time went into re-creating a thesis that narrows my topic. The prehistory of Central Florida has a lot of fascinating information, but i am not going to write about everything. After, i receive feedback this monday i am going to spend majority of my time this week completing this paper. It was beneficial to choose a topic that interests me, therefore i am able to look forward to continue this paper. Also i will be spending time in TJs to practice my writing skills and make this paper flawless. At the same time, i will make a few trips to the historical archive to find more detail information about the Seminole Wars. I hope to find a newsletter during that time period to get a feel for the settlers point of view towards the Indians.

This past week has been a busy week for US History. Turning in my first rough draft was such a releif. I was glad to have that finished and over with. Then moving onto the group projects surrounding the Western Era and the gunfight at OK Corral. We watched the movie my darling clementine and i actually found it quite interesting. I didn't think i would enjoy watching an old film considering im so used to the new modern way of making films and what not but it was actually quite interesting. Although my group has trouble understanding some of the projects guidelines we all collaborated and discussed the film in detail to each gain a different understanding. I enjoyed watching the film and working with my group and am looking to continue that project this week. As for the draft, im just awaiting to get my rough draft back to continue working to acheive a finalized paper.

Rough Draft

In the historical archive I was told Osceola County would be significant to my research on the prehistory of central Florida. This county was named after chief Osceola; he led the Seminoles against a surprise attack on the United States Army. He led the tribe in the second Seminole War in the first battle, which was known as the Dade Massacre. In 1838, Osceola was captured and he died in prison because of malaria.
Also, the Trail of Tears shows how the Americans gave the Native Americans inhumane treatment. This was apart of Andrew Jacksons Indian removal policy, he forced the Native Americans to leave from there territory and move east of the Mississippi. This journey was named the ‘Trail of Tears” because the devastating circumstance of this walk. The Cherokees faced several diseases and hunger throughout this brutal journey, 4,000 out of the 15,000 Native Americans died on the walk towards present day Oklahoma.

this week and the next

well, last week I dont know what to really think about it. we were assigned this group for this OK Corral thing and I like my group but I just don't like our organizational skills because I'm the leader and it's hard for us to get together because four out of the five of us play sports. But.... hopefully this film is good because I really don't like watching bad movies.
And then about this Incognegro book. I LOVED IT.... it was a frieken comic book. it doesnt get much better than that. especcially on the grounds that it had pictures, it was built for kids like me, and it was a comic book. best book i've read in my educational career because it was a comic book. and the meaning behind the story was great. the outline of the story was exceptional and the lessons I learned from it were actually pretty cool. i think that because it was also a picturebook, which helped me remember the story and offer me a gerneal understanding through two ways of learning. for this week, my goals are to just get through the week by watching the movies and then getting to talk about incognegro again.

Peter

Rough Draft

The rough draft that I turned in on Friday included the majority of the research with I found on Womens Roles in Winter Park. I am hoping that this information was enough to make an interesting paper, and I think that the result was pretty interesting. Women in Winter Park were extremely involved in the war effort and seemed to be at the forefront of helping with the war in the United States. I definitely will make sure to go to the writing center for the next draft, I think that will help a lot with polishing my paper and making it sound a lot better. I am planning on continuing research to make this the best that I can, and find even more information that is interesting and gives insight to woman's roles in WWII.

Rough Draft

I thought that the sharing of each topic on Friday was quite intriguing and I was surprised that there was such a wide range of topics. I'm pleased with how my rough draft ended up and I look forward to getting it back and further working on it. Although most of my research was included in my paper, there was a small, select amount that I decided to not include since I wanted to wait to see how it would fit into the paper in later drafts. Hopefully, with the revision of the rough draft, I will be able to incorporate the other research. 

Rough Draft

After handing in my rough draft on friday, I am very interested in seeing what Dr. Chambliss has to say in terms of feedback. Hopefully they will be positive remarks so the second rough draft that we have to do will be easier for me. The most interesting I learned in doing my research is that Paul Newman and Oliver Stone attended the first annual Florida Film Festival,  located at The Enzian Theater, which is just minutes form campus. Also the horror movie The Blair Witch Project was first screened at the 1999 film festival in which over 2,000 people attended.

Interesting notes about Hamilton Holts Speech

I found that the speech made by Hamilton Holt on the morning of November 28th 1947 presented many interesting perspectives of 1940s culture in America. Rollins was a liberal institution, Holt was a liberal president, however the South in the 1940s was far from liberal. The fact that Rollins is located in the South made race related issues of this era all the more controversial and even more difficult to address. Holt expressed his fear that Kenneth Woodward (the Black Ohio Wesleyan player) would be injured, or would injure somebody else, thus provoking a "race war." I don't entirely disagree with Holt's perspective on this issue, i do however question his motive. Was he really concerned about safety? or was it more about school P.R.

A conversation about Disney

While taking a taxi back from Orlando International Airport, I asked my cab driver how business was doing since Disney began operating its "Disney's Magical Express" in 2005.  The service, available only to guests of Disney hotels and resorts, makes it so guests simply board a bus while their baggage is collected and then delivered to their rooms while they head out to the parks and then delivered back to the airport and checked through to their final destinations.  He told me that it has completely wiped out all of his would-be customers going to Disney's property.  Ironically, the company that owns the taxi cab company he works for also happens to operate the "Disney's Magical Express," along with the transportation used to take Disney cruise passengers to and from the Disney property, airport and Disney's cruise terminal in Port Canaveral.  There was much opposition toward the airport shuttle service because it gave Disney an unfair advantage over taxi cab and limousine companies that now have to compete with Disney's complementary service.  This just shows how the mighty Disney has managed to get something else it wants even if it means hurting the little guy.

Rough Draft

So, as always, I procrastinated writing my paper. This would not have been such a bad thing if I did not also have a rough draft due in my RCC that same day. So, after staying up until 4 in the morning two days in a row, I was a little tired and I'm not sure how well my paper ended up coming out. The paper was similar to other papers i had written, so it wasn't too different. The one thing I got a little stuck on was the chicago style compared to MLA. But now that I've worked with it a bit, I think I have a better handle on it, so I can perfect it for the final draft. This rough draft definatly helped me get into the mindset of what the final will look like, and since I really only need to comb through it, I hope that it will not take as much time to turn in the final draft.

First Draft of Paper

The first draft was due on Friday so last week was an extremely busy week for me. I had to gather all my research and organize it into paper form. It was extremely busy becuase i also had to gather my final citations from the archives and other areas of research. Although it was stressful i managed to pull through and get it turned in on Friday. In my first draft i really emphasized the influences on housing. I talked a lot about how housing developments came about and how they grew in Winter Park. Some of these major influences on housing was the tourism that brought a lot of people to move to Winter Park which definately impacted the increase in housing along with the effects of the creation of Disney that opened up a lot of different opportunities like jobs in the area. On top of those influences just the beauty within Winter Park its self and the expansion of the small town in the early 1900's drew a lot of attention to this area in central Florida. Although this paper has been very stressful im glad that im through the process of gathering research and my first draft.