Choosing and Paraphrasing Cantos

            Last week was even less stressful than the last for class work and homework in ALA. Of course having another day off, Monday, was nice for this reason, but this past week was geared toward learning about our new unit and starting to research. On Tuesday, we went more into depth on Dante's Inferno, and looked at the nine Circles of Hell and the 34 Cantos. Not only were we completing the introduction to Dante, but we were introduced fully to our extensive Dante's Inferno project. From what it has to offer to make us suffer, it doesn't seem as hard as other projects we've done, just even more time consuming.  For me, even if a one-part assignment is academically harder than a multiple-part project, the multiple-part project will always be harder for me because my problem with projects is the amount of time it consumes. Projects such as the one we are given in ALA are my hell, because figuring out a balance of time consumption and working for hours on end is my fear and suffering of academics. Fortunately for me, the material and Dante's Inferno is somewhat interesting and almost fun to learn about, so I'll enjoy the suffering to a certain extent. Almost everyone in class, including me, wanted to do the "Dante's Inferno: 'what level of hell are you in?' Test" and I think I can stand for everybody when I say everyone was in hell, and most pretty deep, as I was. With that fun way to end Tuesday, the rest of the short week was to come, full of tiresome work time.

            In class, we were given Thursday and Friday to start researching our chosen Cantos and start/possibly finish paraphrasing that Canto into contemporary English. The Cantos I was interested in were more of the ones in the Fraud level of Dante's hell. The specific ones I wanted were 20, and 23-27. Luckily I ended up being able to choose Canto XXV, one of the ones I wanted. Canto XXV contains thieves and poetically explains their sins and deserved punishments. I finished paraphrasing this Canto only about half of the way through in two class periods, and that was the end of last week. I have yet to finish paraphrasing this week, and start working on research, my presentation, and my visual. The hardest part about this project is the amount of writing it requires, and is what stresses me out about the whole thing. I will start writing very soon, as it will take me an estimate of 10 hours I'm realizing. There is a lot of work to be done for this project, and I'm just glad I have a later Canto, because it gives me more time to work on this project. This week I will try to truly get started on the research and writing element of the project, and of course finish the tedious paraphrasing. The week of TCAPs is when I have to turn in this project and present, and until then, I have much to do for this project of hell.