| The Wade Center |
[Nov. 19th, 2006|10:48 pm] |
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As i have talked about before, the Wade Center is a fantastic source of information for my senior thesis. I was able to visit the Wade Center earlier this semester, and i am very excited to conduct further research there. The Wade Center, which is one of the most authoratative archives on the lives of Tolkien and Lewis, is where i will be getting the bulk of my sources. During my visit, i was able to talk with the archivist who helped me greatly. The archivist gave me many secondary resources. The archivist suggest that i look to the bibliographies on the secondary resouces in order to pinpoint more primary resources. Although this may seem a simple suggestion, i had never thought about it before talking to her. The archivist also helped me locate many letters that Tolkien and Lewis had written, as well as autobiographies from both. During my vist i was also able to take a tour of a small museum that is there. The museum has several pieces from the lives on Tolkien and Lewis. For instance, the muesum displays the wardrobe that was used in the firt Chronicles of Narnina movie that was filmed. It was really cool to tour the museum in order to get a better understanding of the impact that Lewis and Tolkien had on the world. |
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| Helpful Source |
[Nov. 19th, 2006|10:21 pm] |
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All of you have heard me talk about the Wade Center in Wheaton, and what a good archival resource that has been. I will be getting the large marjority of my resources at the Wade Center, specifically my primary resources, However, a resource that has been very helpful to me that is not located at the Wade Center is the book "The Face of Battle", written by military historian John Keegan. The book has chapters dedicated to different battles thoughtout history. One chapter is on the Battle of the Somme. This chapter has been very helpful in giving me a better sense of what WWI was truely like. The Battle of the Somme of was British offense that failed miserably. In the battle the British used tanks for the first time in WWI. Both Tolkien and Lewis fought for the British army. The Battle of the Somme was the first battle that Tolkien was in. During the battle Tolkien came down with Trenchfoot. Author Keegan really paints an extremely vivid picture of the horror and chaos that was experienced in trench warfare. Keegan has helped me understand more closely what Lewis and Tolkien experienced in WWI. |
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| Field Trip |
[Nov. 10th, 2006|01:12 pm] |
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The field trip to U of I was an enlightening experience. It is really cool to say that i have been to the largest library in the world that utilizes the dewey decimal system. Just seeing the library and the architecture was amazing. I really liked how old the parts of the library was. The best part of the tour was when we were the library that uses the compact shelving. I had never seen the compact shelving before and that suprised me. I was also suprised at the vast amounts of information; there are books written on every type of subject you can imagine. I also enjoyed the government documents portion of the tour. While we were in the government documents i was able to find a series of books published on famous authors in Britain. During my independant reseach time i was able to look up J.R.R. Tolkien and learn a lot about him from a the published series. I know that simply from finding the the series published on famous authors the trip to U of I was valuble. I know we do not have that at Olivet. The trip was also valuble simply to see all the differnt libraries and the different angles that you could approach research from. I would like to see Benner library continue to expand. I would also like to see a larger variety of books. I know at a Christian school there is a stong emphasis on the Christian approach to education. However, a Christian approach often includes researching secular points of view. As Christians we must be knowledgable about what is going on in the world so that we may help to see that justice is served. Therefore, i would like to see Benner get a wider variety of secular items as well. |
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| Ideal Primary Sources |
[Oct. 29th, 2006|06:53 pm] |
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The ideal primary sources for my topic are letters written from Lewis and Tolkien while they were away serving in WWI. Fortunately, through my research i have found that both Lewis and Tolkien were proficient letter writers. There are many letters that Lewis wrote to his best friend Arthur Grieves, as well as to his father and brother. There are also books that are published with some of Tolkiens letters as well. There is a entire published series of letters of the Lewis family. Other primary sources that would be ideal for me to research would include diaries and journals. I have not had any success with locating a journal by either Tolkien or Lewis. However, Lewis did write a lot of poetry during his time in WWI, this poetry has actually been published. Lewis also has two auto biographies with at least one chapter dedicated to his experiences in WWI. I already have one of those, "Suprised By Joy". |
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| Revised Topic |
[Oct. 29th, 2006|06:46 pm] |
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Recently i have narrowed my topic. My current topic is on WWI and the impact that the war had upon J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The topic that intended to do my prospectus on was the topic of the Inklings. I decieded to narrow down my topic considerably simply because the topic of the Inklings was much too broad. I also decieded to pick my new topic because, through research, i learned that both Tolkien and Lewis served in WWI. I enjoy literary and military history very much, my new topic is combining both of these. I am very hopeful that this topic will work as a prospectus. I am very excited to research more on this topic, specifically the letters that both Tolkien and Lewis wrote while they were away at war. There is a possibility that i may further narrow my topic down, but as of right now i am very confident that this will work. |
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| Evaluation Criteria |
[Oct. 23rd, 2006|05:57 pm] |
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Now that i have narrowed my topic down, selection and evaluation of sources should be much easier for me. Before i had narrowed down my topic selection the immediate problem i ran into was the fact that there were way too many primary and secondary sources to even evaluate. Therefore, I narrowed down my topic to how WWI effected the lived of Tolkien and Lewis. One of the evaluation techniques i have practiced throughout this research project is the technique that Dr. Lowe taught us. Dr. Lowe stated that the last thing we should do when we pick up a book is read it. Before we read the information that the author has written, we should first read tbe front cover, bibliography, and introduction. We may even want to research the background of the author before we read the book. In doing all of this, we can understand the motives and the forming of the authors ideas before we read the message that the author wants to convey to us. As i evaluate the quality and relevance of information now, the only problem i have really encounterd so far is that i do not have any primary sources close at hand. Most of the primary sources that i will use for research are located back home in Wheaton. This simply means that i will do a lot of traveling in between Wheaton and Olivet. As i evaluate the quality and relevance of information i believe one problem i will run into is simply staying on topic. I will research Tolkien and Lewis's lives and literature, i will research WWI and the Battle of the Somme. The biggest challenge will be to integrate both military history, and the specific impact WWI has made on Lewis and Tolkien. I must have the overall picture, while at the same time ensuring that i keep my research specified. |
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| Organizational System |
[Oct. 16th, 2006|07:33 am] |
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In all honesty, my organizational skills have been somewhat lacking thus far in this research project. This is because i still need to narrow down my topic. This is also because most of my research thus far has simply been conducted in order to learn more about my topic, in order for me to get the bigger picture before i can actually begin researching for my actual research paper. The system I am using that has worked for me in the past is note cards. Each time i find a quote that i really think could be used towards my research project, i write the quote on a notecard. I also make sure that i record where the quote was found, including page number and source. I organize the notecards by text from which they were found. As far as keeping track of photocopies, i simply write keep the photocopies together depending on what source each was found from. I also keep the photocopies in page numerical order within the source they were found from. |
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| General Topic |
[Sep. 29th, 2006|01:47 pm] |
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I have chosen to write my senior thesis on the literary group known as the inklings. As i stated in historigraphy class, i do not know very much about the group as of yet. What i do know is the group included such authors as; C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and Charles Willams to name a few. The group was comprised of over 30 individuals who were associated with Oxford University. I am really excited to research and learn more about this topic. I am very interested in the nature of the literay meetings that took place amongst the intellectuals in the inklings. I am also very excited to conduct research at my home in Wheaton, IL this summer. Wheaton College has a museum known as the Wade Center that has many primary sources from members of the inklings. |
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| Kankakee Historical Society |
[Sep. 17th, 2006|09:08 pm] |
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In all honesty, at first i thought going to the museum would be somewhat a waste of time. In fact, I ended up learning a lot from the field trip and was very interested in what the curator of the museum had to say. It was very good to hear from someone who has had a lot of experience in research, specifically history. One thing that i did learn from him is that it takes a lot of work to get a PHD in anything. I thought it was also pretty incredible how much he knew about all the specific officers that he wrote his book on. What he really showed me is that reseach is a lot more than simply reading books or looking at websites. Much of research requires hands on work, for instance how he traveled to the many graves of the officers that he wrote his books on. Another thing i learned was the importance of primary sources in any reseach. If your research is based simply on secondary sources there is nothing original about your research. |
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| Intro |
[Sep. 5th, 2006|07:26 pm] |
My name is Kyle, I am Junior and majoring in history. I really enjoy traveling, reading, and outdoor activities. Once i graduate i hope to work for the Army for a couple of years. I would also like to go on to getting my masters, and i want to live in another country for a few years.
I have done a semster long research project once before in an english class. During the reseach i focused most of my attention on the process because there were always deadlines for my research. |
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