Internet Tools Used

The internet tools we have used throughout the semester have been fantastic. Del.icio.us has been my most valued tool because of its ease of use and ability to add descriptions to all of your bookmarks. The blog has also been helpful because it allowed me to keep track of my research and document any progress made from week to week. Whenever confusion arose, I would always turn to my blog in order to find out what exactly was going on. The class wiki however was rarely used because I felt the blog and del.icio.us satisfied the areas of this class very well. I was also somewhat hesitant in having too many internet tools to manage as this can cause confusion at times.

Literary Essay Research

The Daily Observer: "Pope's 'Left Behind' Comments Spark Controversy"

Keywords used: "Left Behind Series" + controversies

Date: 05/1/2008

Hits: N/A

Relevance: 5

_____________________________________________

The New York Times. Editorial. "Apocalypse (Almost) Now"

Keywords used: "Left Behind Series" + editorial

Date: 05/3/2008

Hits: N/A

Relevance: 4

Literary Essay Outline

Dustin M Ficco

English 112


Literary Essay Outline

Preliminary Thesis: Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have written all of the books for the Left Behind Series. The authors themselves are quite interesting due to their backgrounds. These books have raised a number of controversies as a result of diverse content. Many wonder how accurately these books depict events forecasted in the Bible and whether or not the authors have the credentials to take on such a controversial piece.

I. Introduction
A. Author Backgrounds

II. Book Information
A. Important aspects
B. Plot

III. Book Controversies
A. Book is fictional
B. Written through the use of the Bible
C. Violence
IV. Authors
A. Credentials.
B. Biblical accuracy

V. Conclusion

Research Updates

So far I have found a couple of websites I would like to use in my project. Below I have included the tracking information for these sites.

Tim LaHaye's Biography

Keywords used: Tim LaHaye

Date Searched: 04/28/2008

Relevance: 5


Jerry Jenkins’s Biography

Keywords used: Jerry Jenkins

Date Searched: 04/30/2008

Relevance: 5

Research Proposal

Dustin M. Ficco

Research Proposal

English 112

Left Behind Series

I am proposing to write my literary essay on the Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I will discuss the book’s contents in a somewhat broad context as well as how these two authors found their information to use for their books.
A few key questions that I will be addressing are as follows. What are these series of books about? Are the books fact or fiction? Is it mythical or of realistic origin? Do these authors have the credibility to write such books?
I will be using internet sources for most of my research into both of the author’s backgrounds and legitimacy of what they are writing. For the summarization of the book, I will be using the first three books of the series because I feel they are of most importance.
The above research should be completed within the next week or so. This should allot me a considerable amount of time to complete the necessary research for this literary essay.
The biggest challenge that I will have to face when conducting my research is finding factual information. These books have sparked a great deal of controversy since their initial release. This has caused a vast number of writers and critics to publish editorials based on irrelevant information. Hopefully I will be able to sort through this information and find “facts” that are verifiable.

Research paper and proposal updates

Everything is great as far the research paper goes. I am somewhat confused as to what kind of visual aid needs to be provided with our papers. The research proposal remains the same. I am hoping to write the literary essay on the Left Behind series.

ENGL 112, Field Research

Although I had to make a last minute change once again as to whom my subject was, she also has extensive knowledge in theology and science. Her name is Christina Danley and she was extremely helpful and knowledgeable with the questions I had.

I learned from my interview with her that she believes with all her heart that public schools should give students the option to study creation as an alternative to evolution. She also stated however, that "the separation of Church and State should be put into file 13 where it belongs." She believes that students should not have either evolution or creation forced upon them; instead, let the students make a decision as to what they want to study. In my interview I also learned that Christina believes the Bible is by far more credible and accurate than Darwin's theory of evolution. One of her quotes was absolutely fantastic, "There is a scripture in the Bible which states that a fool says in his heart that there is no God. I don’t want to be the fool he spoke of when I meet up with him face to face.” I feel I learned a great deal from this interview and hope that it strengthens my paper overall!