Journal 4

This week has been very productive. The biggest thing that I was able to accomplish was writing three pages of my final paper. I was able to sit down and write the pages and then took a lot of time to edit the pages. I was not able to fix all of the problems, but that was not my goal. I added bolded points of things that I need to add or change for later, but as this is the first draft I am not worried about taking too much time to edit because I will change it many times before a final draft comes out. After writing these first few pages I went back through and added the citations for the information that I learned from different sources. Although I did not put the citations in notes format, they are currently in bibliography format, I will change the formatting later when it gets closer to the week that I have set aside for formatting and grammar.

 I was also able spend a good deal finding some more articles and books that I can use for my essay. I went on inter-library loan and was able to request seven more books and articles. Several of the books I have already been able to look through, so it will not take me too long to extract the information that I need. The main piece of information that I am looking for is any information of the pre-writing tradition of ancient China, a period from about 4000-1200 B.C.E. Not much remains from this period except from some pottery shards. Some of these shards have markings on them. Some archaeologists claim that these markings are the first signs of writing in China. I plan on looking at the markings myself and evaluate the claims of other historians and archaeologists.

 The last thing that I did was compile a preliminary bibliography list. I currently have 42 sources in my bibliography. All of the sources are arranged in alphabetic order and are all formatted correctly and am ready to be a final draft. Other sources that I find throughout the last of my research I will just add in to its appropriate spot.

 As I was writing my paper this week I realized that in order for my analysis to be clear I need to spend some time talking about the nature of the Chinese language, and why its development makes sense in lieu of the grammatical structure and feature that are distinctive in the language.  Before I move rough the history of China and its script I will explain the language. I will use two different resources to show the linguistic side of Chinese and the main theories that have been postulated throughout history as to the nature of the language. Finally, next week I plan on writing this section and will include it right after the introduction, or part of the introduction, and before the other pages that I have already written.