"Writing About Writing"

My Major Project is one of the hardest papers I have ever written. Coming into this class, I honestly did not have much prior knowledge of women in comedy/feminist humor. So when I glanced at the syllabus on the first day of class and realized I was going to have to do a research project on this subject by the end of the semester, I definitely got really nervous about doing this project.

Luckily enough, my project idea came pretty early on in the class after reading excerpts from Amy Poehler’s memoir. This definitely calmed some of my anxiety as I had figured out what I was going to write about. What drew me into her memoir at first was the way she used footnotes as both a conversational and metaphoric device. It was something I had never seen before and I thought it was brilliant!

What made this paper so hard for me is that I probably spent twice as much time researching as I did writing. That’s a lot of time considering I wrote an 8 ½ page paper, and I am not an English major ! Before I could write about how Amy Poehler helped diffuse a feminist message, I had to be truly acquainted with what feminism in 2020 looks like. I read respected academic scholars like Bell Hooks and Angela McRobbie thinking I could find a good overview of feminist ideals. Instead, I ended up going down deep rabbit holes where I found a more nuanced and scholarly debate about feminism and post-feminism that fascinated me, but didn’t necessarily apply to my paper. Most importantly, this piqued my interest in the philosophy and practical application of feminism today. And thankfully, I also was able to tie in McRobbie to my paper.

When I finally sat down to write my paper, I was able to write the majority of my draft in one sitting. Sometimes it is hard for me to get my ideas down on paper, but I think finding a genuine interest in my project helped me write more speedily. It certainly was not the cleanest draft, but sitting through a zoom meeting with Dr. Hanrahan and reading my peer review from Elisha helped me greatly in putting the final edition together.

I am usually a last minute kind of person, but I was able to turn my final paper in on the morning it was due, not at 4:59 PM! This paper definitely taught me how to prioritize preparation and research, and to value peer review as an invaluable resource. Although I was super anxious about this project at the beginning of the semester, I am glad that I had the opportunity to do it and gain invaluable writing lessons and a whole new breadth of knowledge when it comes to feminism.