Final Reflection of the Commonplace Book
After building my commonplace book from the ground up, I have learned an abundance of things. At the beginning of the semester, I was not looking forward to how much reading needed to be done nor this project as a whole. I think I was partially intimidated but also not super interested in the readings. Once I began doing the commonplace book along with reading, I was able to become more indepth with the reading and analyze it better overall. What I mean by this is, doing the commonplace book and having this be a semester-long project counting toward my final grade, encouraged me to read the books at the pace initially set. Although it seemed like a lot of work initially, by doing the readings and the commonplace book simultaneously, I was able to get all of this done within a reasonable amount of time. I would say the largest benefit from keeping the commonplace book was the preparation it gave me for the midterm exam. I was able to go through my commonplace book along with the powerpoints and pick out key ideas that I needed to remember. During our reflection time in class, I was told that I should organize my commonplace book based off of the topics provided. So, I went through and created a multitude of pages that allowed me to do that. I think by doing this, the layout is a lot more simple and easy to navigate. I was also encouraged to add more choice content. This was a struggle for me because I am not too creative however, I was able to find some things that worked for me like some word searches! Having entered information about the authors into my commonplace book allowed me to have a better understanding of the story as I read and wrote about it. For example, L.T. Meade and Madame Koluchy both really inspired me. I thought Meade’s creation of Koluchy was a commentary on how women of her time were treated. I think by using a woman as this character, she (in a way) was letting the men of her time fear that this could begin happening to them. I would have never unpacked this if I had not done the commonplace book and began to make deep rooted connections like that. That goes to show that all of the authors are purposeful in the work that they produce. There is a reason that Victor created Frankenstein, there is a reason that Hyde was animalistic, there was a reason that Griffin covered himself even though he was invisible. Everything that these authors do is not by accident and I think the commonplace book really emphasized that for me. I had to make these connections in order to truly understand what I was reading and why. Overall, I enjoyed doing the commonplace book. It was surely daunting at first, but the collaboration and advice I was able to receive from my peers was very helpful in improving it. I think that if I could give any advice to the next student doing one of these, it would be to take your time to truly think about what you want in the commonplace book. Make the connections and make it in a way that is understandable not only for yourself but for others as well. I used my commonplace book as a means for studying and reflecting on the previously read texts.