Follow A Student: Paper Six

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The student ended the semester with a paper that brought together three (seemingly divergent) essays:

   It is a great challenge to understand oneself and to put one's experiences in the context of general human existence. This requires note only interest in one's personal life, but also in the world in which the self resides. In Annie Dillard's "The Wreck of Time: Taking Our Century's Measure," she addresses the current ways in which general human faults such as shortsightedness, self-obsession, and carelessness towards others can be nourished by culture, and consequently contribute to an apathetic, arrogant, and seemingly independent existence. Similarly, in Ellen Dissanayake's "The Core of Art: Making Special," she outlines the importance of art in allowing people to come to terms with their humanity and mortality, and also outlines the challenges culture poses on this process. Both essays stress that in order for an individual's existence to be meaningful, he or she must picture human life in a connected way, so that experiences are seen as incidental events, rather than as original and personalized ones. In John Krakauer's "Into the Wild," Chris McCandless struggles for inner-peace, which is a precursor towards visualizing the connection of human life, while venturing into the Alaskan wilderness.

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The instructor wrote:

Well-thought out, and well-analyzed, and this certainly is a testament to your strong writing and commitment this summer.

In this case, we most clearly see the limitations of the materials we have. The instructor has brief end comments, since many of her or his marginal comments carry the load of feedback and response for this paper. In some ways, then, the student's sixth paper is a reminder of how much improvement reflects on depends on other factors beyond the instructor's comments.

Now that we've seen all of our student's papers, let's take a moment to reflect.

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